


You are a love that I’ve felt for the first time

by SEpupppupp (ForNought)



Category: Produce 101 (TV), YHNEXT (Band), 乐华七子NEXT | NEX7, 偶像练习生 | Idol Producer (TV)
Genre: Alcohol, Bad Flirting, First Dates, M/M, falling too fast, holiday au, lads holiday, seunghyuk has a lot of one night stands
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-24
Updated: 2019-02-24
Packaged: 2019-11-05 03:43:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 25,328
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17911367
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ForNought/pseuds/SEpupppupp
Summary: Like the absolute madlads they are Hyungseob, Seunghyuk, and Euiwoong take an impromptu trip to China to recharge and let off some steam and Hyungseob might just fall in love way too easily.





	You are a love that I’ve felt for the first time

**Author's Note:**

> apparently this is yet another fic it took me almost an entire year to write (like 49-ish weeks is barely acceptable to claim it didn't take a whole year tbh). please excuse uhhh everything about this but let's say it is set in like april (oh my mistake) of this year when euiwoong would be able to get rat-arsed in china
> 
> the title is from shanghai romance because orange caramel are legends the likes of which we'll never see again

The possibility of this being a Lads’ Holiday didn't really exist considering that out of the three of them the one who could be considered most laddish is Euiwoong. The only claims Euiwoong has to being a lad are that he only works out to look good for shirtless selfies and he seems to be terrified of commitment. 

Seunghyuk definitely isn't a lad. He hadn't even unpacked from his skiing holiday with his parents (which was apparently more about getting drunk and the next morning pretending he had no recollection of flirting with the chalet boys) before he accepted the impromptu invitation for the Lads’ Holiday and arrived to pick Hyungseob up with the cuffs of his chinos turned up around his ankles. 

Hyungseob doesn’t need to be told that he isn’t a lad. He knows it well enough himself and it is probably the reason he has spent the last two months crying while video with chatting Seunghyuk and Euiwoong while complaining that all the feelings he has been eating are starting to manifest into a second chin. 

The hotel they are staying at doesn't exactly conjure thoughts of three lads heading out on the town, getting too drunk in clubs and kissing strangers for free drinks to push them onto the wrong side of lairy. Seunghyuk has been ignoring Euiwoong's solo attempts to decide which hotel restaurant they should try out for lunch as he pores through the spa pamphlet. 

“Is this it?” Hyungseob asks, feeling very much at a loss in the middle of the suite they are sharing. Even if they're not the types to try to drink the locals under the table, or do something impulsive without the cushion of Seunghyuk lazily waving his credit card around and saving them all from poverty, this isn’t the adventure he had been promised. 

“We’ve literally just arrived,” Euiwoong points out. He sounds so rational about it and with one level look he has Hyungseob feeling as though he is overreacting for no reason whatsoever. It is sort of true but it is unappreciated all the same. “Let’s at least have some lunch before we start having temper tantrums.”

Euiwoong is rude! Terribly so! But Hyungseob is hungry enough to allow it and decides to buy them lunch from the restaurant on the fifth floor. 

Hyungseob is surprised when they manage to arrive after Euiwoong shrugs and only gives him a floor number once they’re inside the lift and the doors have closed. Seunghyuk is too busy preening in the large mirror in the lift and is no help at all as Euiwoong tries to recall what he read in the brochure which floors the restaurants are actually on. It isn’t until the third attempt of Euiwoong guessing a floor that they happen upon a restaurant. Ornately carved pillars varnished to rich hues stand intermittently between tables with opulently glinting gold accents. It is all very nice to look at, but Euiwoong has his own complaints. 

“What did you say to that waitress for her to sit us at a table completely surrounded by plants?”

Seunghyuk shrugs. “I didn’t say anything. I like the plants. It makes for a nice ambience.”

“Oh my gosh, you  _ asked _ for us to be seated by plants, didn’t you?” Euiwoong says as he contemplates his cup of warm water. He really seems to struggle in his internal debate over drinking it or throwing it at Seunghyuk. “You know I have hayfever, right.”

“You do not have hayfever,” Hyungseob grumbles. 

“I  _ could _ have hayfever.”

Whether or not Euiwoong has hayfever (which he doesn’t) they manage to eat a very nice lunch and Hyungseob thinks that maybe this holiday won’t be so bad. The three of them can pamper themselves and go shopping and go for drinks and flirt with people they will never see again. It is good to get away and the three of them being single is just the opportunity they all needed. 

They even have drinks with lunch because they deserve to and the shots they’re taking are classy so it can all be excused. Right up until Hyungseob’s card gets declined. He wonders if his coordination is off because of minor inebriation and he keeps trying until Seunghyuk takes the card reader from his hands and tells the waitress to charge the meal to his tab.

“Why isn’t my card working?” Hyungseob mutters as they leave the restaurant. He squints at it from every angle but he has no clue what would render his card useless. 

“Did you tell the bank that you were going abroad?” Euiwoong asks. 

“What?”

“You have to tell the bank when you’re travelling so that they know that you're using your card,” Seunghyuk says with his arm around Hyungseob’s shoulder. “You idiot.”

Hyungseob is an idiot. He hadn’t known that was even a thing. If course someone like Seunghyuk who jets to a different city every month would know something like this, and of course someone sensible like Euiwoong would think of it as something too obvious to even mention to a dolt like Hyungseob. 

“Are you crying?” Seunghyuk asks. “I didn’t really mean it about you being an idiot, Seob. I love you  _ because _ you’re a dummy.”

“Nothing ever goes right for me,” Hyungseob whimpers. Seunghyuk pulls Hyungseob into a tight hug while they’re waiting for the lift yet somehow Euiwoong squeezes his way in anyway. 

It feels nice being held like this. Even if Hyungseob is an idiot and he is too clingy and annoying and he takes everything too personally he likes to be hugged as though none of that matters. 

Even better than a hug is Seunghyuk suggesting they head to the spa after they unpack and it isn't so bad when a chatty girl is telling Hyungseob that he has nice hands while she massages them and says lots of things that Hyungseob can't really keep track of. 

Even though Hyungseob is in a foreign country without a penny to his name he has two great friends who tell him not to worry about it. 

“I'll pay you back the second I get the bank to unlock my account,” Hyungseob says very solemnly back in their suite. 

Seunghyuk just smiles and carries on scrolling through his phone. Seunghyuk always does that when he doesn't believe what Hyungseob is saying but it is just another reason to prove his intentions. Euiwoong is no better, chuckling to himself as he pretends to put together an outfit from his suitcase in the middle of the room. 

Things have been tough for a little while and Hyungseob will admit that he has been flakier than usual but he really does mean what he says. He will pay both of his friends back, both for the money they're lending him and for the support they have given to him as they assured him for weeks on end that he hadn't done anything wrong. 

“I'm sorry for being-”

“Here,” Euiwoong says as he offers Seunghyuk and Hyungseob small pouches. Typical of him to interrupt with something as sensible as something to ward away hangovers. Hyungseob even shakes his pouch and confirms the most weighty of the contents against the crinkling of pill packets is a bottle of peptobismol. It's nice to knowing that, lads or not, Euiwoong does care. But then Seunghyuk unzips the pouch he has been given and laughs. Seunghyuk empties the pouch of condoms and lube and laughs even harder. 

“Woong, you're really getting into the spirit of things. It's weird.”

“It's not weird,” Euiwoong pronounces. “I just want everyone to be safe and I know what sort of person you are.”

“Wow, thanks,” Seunghyuk says sarcastically. 

“Why does he get all that and I get medicine?”

“Medicine?” Euiwoong gets up and snatches the pouch from Hyungseob. There are kinder ways of proving someone wrong but it makes sense for Euiwoong to choose the simplest method. “I'm not sure what you'd use any of that to treat but whatever’s wrong with you I think you need it.”

Hyungseob picks the content of his own safety kit off the floor and wonders why Euiwoong even feels the need to take care of everyone to this extent. Even with something else Hyungseob guesses he is supposed to feel grateful for mood suddenly doesn't seem right to begin his heartfelt thanks to the two people who have been there for him through everything.

Seunghyuk starts to put away his own condoms and bottle of lube into his pouch and goes back to his phone. It’s like the spell is broken and even Euiwoong goes back to rooting through his suitcase. He holds up a very loud pair of underwear as though that's enough of a punchline in itself and Hyungseob wonders why his friend is like this. Hyungseob isn’t sure how to point out how he hates this. 

“Hey, so there's a club not too far away from here doing a dance festival sort of thing this week,” Seunghyuk says and cuts Hyungseob’s thoughts short. He holds his phone out to show Hyungseob the messy poster graphic he has found. 

Hyungseob feels put out and his voice comes out very small as he says, “I can't read Chinese.”

Seunghyuk grins and drops his phone onto the sofa cushion beside him. “There are special wristbands we can buy to be able to attend for the whole week. You like dancing, right? I bet it will cheer you up.”

“Are you sure?” Euiwoong asks, finally holding something that isn't underwear with a horrific flaming neon palm-tree print. “Seob hasn't danced much in the past few months. I think there's a reason for that.”

“Then it'll be perfect!” Seunghyuk insists. “Today's hero Seob is looking for some healing after a recent hardship. Suddenly the gauntlet is thrown for an impromptu dance-off and he realises he can show these guys what real dancing is. He rises to the challenge and regains his confidence and… he'll become a dancing star in China and certain people in Korea will be painfully jealous and wish they'd never hurt him.”

“You're strange,” Euiwoong says. “You shouldn't go skiing again if you're going to come back and keep saying things like this.”

“Do you think he'll ever be sorry?” Hyungseob asks. Now he feels even sillier and his throat feels tight and he wishes that even the vaguest of references didn't do this to him. 

Seunghyuk rolls off the sofa and trips in his haste to drag Hyungseob into his arms. It is nice how Seunghyuk has almost developed a reflex to hold Hyungseob every time he so much as sniffs too loudly. If Hyungseob is being honest he is never sniffing too loudly because he doesn't have a cold, he is trying to hold back tears as he tries not to remember how different his life was half a year ago. 

“It doesn't matter whether he is sorry or not,” Seunghyuk says as he squeezes Hyungseob tightly enough to crack his ribs. “You’re the only one that matters here. We’re going to get you drunk and make fun of all the ugly guys who try to hit on you.”

“And tomorrow,” Euiwoong adds from the floor, “I will tell you off while you're hung-over and afterwards we will cheer you up in ways which aren't hurtful to other people.”

When they do go out (and Euiwoong refuses every one of Seunghyuk's inputs for Hyungseob’s outfit because he refuses to let Hyungseob out of the hotel room looking like one of Seunghyuk's wet dreams) it isn't so bad. Hyungseob isn't in the mood to be mean to people anyway so he doesn't mind that nobody even looks twice at him in the club to offer a drink. 

Euiwoong buys several rounds of shots that Hyungseob forgets to enquire about before tipping the liquid down his throat and wincing at the burn of it between swigs of vodka lemonade. They dance badly together and it is even funny when Euiwoong insists that he can lift Seunghyuk and ends up making them both crash to the floor anyway. 

Like this, Hyungseob doesn't even think about how lonely and pathetic he is. He doesn't turn hopeful eyes on people who nudge past him to move towards the bar or venture deeper into the club. He doesn't even freeze when he thinks he sees someone too familiar under the flash of violet which he hopes makes everything indistinguishable to the point that his brain needs to fill in the rest. 

The problem is that all of that happens and he feels stupid when he goes to lock himself in a toilet cubicle and Seunghyuk and Euiwoong follow him. 

“What's wrong?” Euiwoong calls through the toilet door. “Do you feel sick? Should we go back to the hotel?”

Hyungseob’s ears are ringing and Euiwoong's voice is muffled even with the toilet door blocking out the intricacies of sound each time it swings shut. He unlocks the cubicle and smiles at his friends as they peer worriedly at him. 

“I think I am going to stop drinking tonight.”

“We really can go back to the hotel and order room service and pig out,” Seunghyuk says with a frown. 

“I could have stayed at home to be pathetic, you know,” Hyungseob says. “But we’re in a club in a different country. I shouldn’t waste time by not appreciating this.”

Euiwoong doesn't look so much like he agrees but he doesn’t insist they return to the hotel to lick Hyungseob’s many wounds. He manages to get some water from the bar and the dry stiffness of Hyungseob’s mouth is quenched as he chugs at the icy water. When they find a little table Euiwoong nurses a beer himself and says there is no point in getting too drunk too quickly. Seunghyuk laughs at him and sips at his white wine spritzer as though he’d rather pass judgement on Euiwoong’s choice of drink.  

Even if Hyungseob feels a bit fresher he mostly feels tired so he feels bad that Seunghyuk and Euiwoong are forfeiting the opportunity to break each others’ necks with ill-advised lifting and are instead sitting with him to be boring. 

It isn’t long before Euiwoong convinces Hyungseob to dance a bit more (rather, Euiwoong is trying to convince him to go back to the hotel and call it a night but Hyungseob isn’t going to let his own misery get in the way of a mediocre night) and it is easy to laugh with Seunghyuk when Euiwoong goes tongue-tied when he gets approached with free drinks. 

  
  


\---

  
  


“You should call that guy,” Seunghyuk insists over breakfast. 

Euiwoong sips watermelon juice through a straw and adjusts his sunglasses as though he isn’t still half-dead from the amount of drinks he was offered last night. They all missed the hotel breakfast because they spent the morning sleeping in (or in Euiwoong’s case, throwing up and complaining about how he will never be able to eat again while Hyungseob and Seunghyuk took turns sleepily making sure he swilled his mouth out before tucking him back into bed) so they had to venture out of the hotel to find a cafe for ‘brunch’. Only Hyungseob is actually eating because Seunghyuk is pretending he isn’t somehow in as delicate a predicament as Euiwoong is but he doesn’t mind. 

“I am not calling that guy. How am I supposed to talk to him?”

“You’ll find a way, I’m sure,” Seunghyuk grins. 

“You’re disgusting. Besides, he’s short and I don’t think he works out.”

“But you’re-”

A sharp kick under the table stops Hyungseob before he can say anymore. He supposes he wasn’t going to say anything constructive anyway. It wasn’t as though he was about to say something like, “How do you know he doesn’t work out?”

“You really think you’ll get a reaction out of me like that?” Euiwoong asks. “Yeah, I kissed him. I’m not rude. Even if I didn’t understand a word he said I wasn’t going to accept that many drinks without at least kissing him.”

“Do you remember how many drinks he bought you?”

“Far less than I ever have, yet I haven’t even been kissed once.”

“Do you want a kiss?” Euiwoong asks with his fist raised more menacingly than his question requires. Seunghyuk scoffs and pretends to contemplate something more solid than his glass of tonic water. 

“Are you really not going to call him?” Seunghyuk asks.

“Why would I? The three of us are here to just have fun and maybe have a couple of one night stands along the way. I think he just gave me his number to be polite.”

“Polite?” Seunghyuk repeats. “You're the one who needs to be polite. Call him. He was cute.”

“How polite will I be when I tell him that I don't remember his name?” Euiwoong asks, bristling with irritation. 

Hyungseob thinks that it is better for Euiwoong to give up on the allegedly short guy who doesn't work out, regardless of how generous he is, because not knowing his name is always going to be a lot more awkward in the daytime without a drop of alcohol between them. It isn’t as though there weren’t plenty of other people who had made bumbling attempts to try it on with Euiwoong. He could have anyone, really. It is just a matter of Euiwoong paying enough attention to be able to remember their name or speak the same language. 

Seunghyuk disagrees and doesn’t let up on his insistence that Euiwoong call the guy from last night. Even as they are on the way to the club from last night with their wristbands which give them access to the dance festival taking place over the week, Seunghyuk tells Euiwoong that he can translate for him if he talks to the guy again. 

The club looks different in the daytime with a few more tables taking up the dancefloor and there is a raised platform for the stage. The atmosphere in the air is no less dense than last night and even with people sipping drinks at tables and chatting amongst themselves Hyungseob can feel the thrill of the performances to come. He can’t help but remember Seunghyuk’s silly prediction about Hyungseob’s life changing but even without that Hyungseob feels helium light above the busy density of the air as they sit at a table near the side of the stage. 

“Oh,” Hyungseob says cheerily as he reaches for a paper menu from the standee in the centre of the table. “They do food here too!”

“Seob, you literally just ate. If you get hot food and I have to smell it I will have to kill you.”

Hyungseob replaces the menu and only pouts a little bit under Euiwoong’s scowling. He knows that he only just ate but he is thinking about later on when he is hungry again and the other two can manage food. Seunghyuk pats Hyungseob’s arm reassuringly and tells him that they can get something else to eat later.

“I bet we can find somewhere really nice to eat,” Seunghyuk says, “We’ll have to tell Euiwoong about it when we catch him after his date.”

“I’m not calling him,” Euiwoong grumbles. “Maybe I didn’t call my phone company to set up roaming.”

“I know you’re not that careless,” Seunghyuk says. “If you were Hyungseob I could believe it but you can’t use that as an excuse.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Oh,” Seunghyuk says as he exchanges a look with Euiwoong. “Did you set up roaming on your phone, Seob? If I call you right now will you be able to pick up?”

Hyungseob elects not to answer that on account of the fact that it is correct that his phone has mysteriously stopped working since they landed in China.  It isn’t his fault that he doesn’t think about things like this but on top of his card not working his phone doesn’t either and Hyungseob is practically off the grid. It would be fun, he thinks, if someone has a change of heart and wants to contact him but can’t reach him. Carelessness could help him remain strong and cold against the feeble enquiry that would have him crawling right back to a person who hasn’t wanted much to do with him in a very long time. 

But Hyungseob isn’t careless to protect himself. He’s careless because he is unfortunately clumsy and he remembers that when he almost knocks over the drinks Seunghyuk buys for them as soon as he tries to take his first sip. He decides to stay very still when the dancers take the stage so that he can’t knock anything over. 

Seunghyuk informs everyone (speaking in a voice far too loud to only be talking to Euiwoong and Hyungseob as though expecting someone else in the club to laugh along) that the sheet Hyungseob had taken to be a menu was in fact a programme with a map on the reverse side showing the other performance venues for the festival.

There are lots of performances taking place over the week but Hyungseob doesn’t think that any of the troupes or performances will top the first one he sees. 

His first thought is that the costumes are nice. The dancers’ heights are all accentuated by the slick black suits and Hyungseob hates how drawn in he is by the almost casual way their shirts are untucked. It is just a small detail but one that Hyungseob is embarrassingly focused on until an errant flicker of the stage lights which have him conjuring comparisons that don’t even make any sense. 

Woojin isn’t onstage, taunting Hyungseob with moves which leave him dry-mouthed and nervous no matter how many quarrels they have about how clingy he is. But even so Hyungseob already feel his stomach tightening with something that he cannot identify in any other way than  _ bad _ . 

“Are you alright?” Euiwoong asks. 

It is just like last night and Hyungseob is an idiot who can’t let things go. He excuses himself to the toilets again but he wonders whether he should be offended that this time nobody follows him. He could simply be holding things together well enough that he could pass things off as feeling a bit sick. But he still feels disappointed that his misery and possible sickness deserve less of his friends’ attention than handsome guys gyrating against the floor.

Even with all the signs with arrows pointing in various directions Hyungseob can’t even read them to verify where he is supposed to be going. By the time he finds what are unmistakably toilets the feeling in his stomach has eased away to the point that he no longer thinks he will be sick. But he is here now. 

Hyungseob washes his hands because he needs something to occupy himself with while he is trying to think. The soap dispenses as foam into his palms and when he claps his hands together tiny bubbles float in front of his reflection in the mirror. It doesn’t seem like something that could keep him entertained for a while yet Hyungseob rinses away the suds and claps more bubbles into the air for long enough that the next person who walks in is wearing the same costume as the dancers who had made Hyungseob need to get away in the first place. 

It would be more accurate to say that the person who walks in  _ is _ one of the dancers because for a very brief moment Woojin glances into Hyungseob’s vision before the dancer smiles awkwardly and heads over to the urinals.

Hyungseob just keeps washing his hands because he doesn’t know what to do and he knows he will struggle to find his way back to the table when his brain is scattering bits of thoughts everywhere. 

Thoughts of when he has hidden in bathrooms previously because of nerves only to have firm and reassuring words that he will do fine just like always flurry across his mind; times when someone has caught his eyes reflected in the mirror and made him laugh without a second thought, times when he has hidden away in a stall and pretended away moments he was told yet again that he was being a bother because there were more important things for time to be spent on. Everything always sounds more callous like this when Hyungseob already feels too delicate and he is muddled from everything like why he thought he would be able to forget everything and have fun so soon after finding out that he didn’t match up with what a cool boyfriend was supposed to be. 

It is stupid because Hyungseob knows that things rarely turn out the way a person suspects yet he had hoped all along that getting along so well with Woojin as friends would translate to the same fate of boyfriends. It was not the case and he still isn’t even certain how much of the relationship he is allowed to be heartbroken over. According to Woojin they weren’t even serious so to still be bumbling around like this months later is apparently unwarranted. 

The sound of the hand-dryer wailing jolts Hyungseob out of his moroseness enough for him to blearily catch the eye of the dancer who is idly watching him as he dries his hands. The dancer says something but it is unintelligible over the air blasting onto his hands so Hyungseob apologises as best he can for whatever he needs to be spoken to about. 

“Oh,” the dancer says as he pulls his hands out from under the dryer and wipes any excess dampness on his jacket. When the hand dryer quiets he says, “I asked whether you were crying.”

It’s a close thing but Hyungseob isn’t crying yet. He swipes quickly at his eyes to make sure and smiles as well as he can with water and maybe a few soap bubbles dripping down his face. Things aren’t going as well as anticipated. 

“I’m fine,” Hyungseob says. 

“I don’t believe you. At all.” The dancer takes a step forward but Hyungseob isn’t so pathetic. He dries his hands on his jeans and wipes at the stinging in his eyes and hopes that the dancer leaves him to wash out his eyes soon. 

The expression on the dancer’s face already looks close to a frown but now his eyebrows tilt with displeasure enough for Hyungseob to wonder where he is going wrong.

“How long have you been in here? Are you sad because you didn’t see me dance?”

“Why would that make me sad?”

The dancer takes his phone out of his pocket and Hyungseob can only imagine it will lead to something bad. But then he puts his phone beside the sink. Not that Hyungseob feels any better about it. 

“You’re Korean, right?” 

“That’s right,” Hyungseob confirms dubiously. It isn't the most absurd guess based on this interaction. 

“My name is Ding Zeren. You might not realise but I am the most serious and handsome man in the world while dancing.”

Rather than asking for a name in return, Zeren taps at his phone to play cacophonous electronica which turns him into a robot who whirs and twists stiffly. Hyungseob doesn’t really know why this is happening. He realises that his first mistake was separating himself from his more responsible friends who could have rescued him from this man who is now hopping and flapping his arms to the beat of fowl cries emitting from his phone.

Though there are admittedly worse things that Hyungseob could be watching than the way this man moves so fluently with defined gestures. He really is a great dancer even if the song is so ridiculous that Hyungseob can’t help but chuckle. Zeren grins up at Hyungseob from the floor as he fluidly stands and rocks his hips to the beat. He seems very serious about squatting and hopping around before finishing with the splits. 

“So what’s your name?” Zeren asks as he frowns at his hands. He washes them quickly again in the sink and glances over expectantly. 

“I’m Ahn Hyungseob. Uh, you are a very good dancer.” 

“I am aren’t I?” Zeren agrees. “So why would a dancer as amazing and brilliant as me meet a cute guy like you and be compelled to cheer you up?”

Hyungseob doesn’t really understand the question and is painfully aware of the fact that he is standing and staring like an idiot while Zeren dries his hands again. Just in case he isn’t aware, Zeren kindly points it out to him. 

“You haven’t said anything for a little bit. Did I say something strange? My Korean probably isn’t that good.”

“No, it’s good,” Hyungseob says reflexively. It’s the truth but he feels awkward about being so desperate to let Zeren know it is the case. “How did you learn?”

Zeren laughs even though there isn’t anything funny but Hyungseob smiles along awkwardly. 

“I studied in Korea for a while and I considered moving over there permanently too. Did you change the subject because you’re not interested in me?”

Zeren was right about being a great dancer but Hyungseob wonders whether it would be worth letting him know he is also very skilled at making him feel embarrassed and awkward for seemingly no reason at all. 

“Not interested?” Hyungseob says instead of anything that makes any sense. 

“Even if you’re not interested I’m glad I could get you to stop crying,” Zeren says. “But I have a great memory for pretty boys and I don’t remember seeing you anywhere before. Did you sneak backstage for a reason or are you lost?”

“I think I’m lost,” Hyungseob replies quietly. He is no less confused and he can’t recall seeing anything which would have marked a shift from front of house to backstage. This is the same club as last night and he remembers the toilets he went to then being hidden away in some corridor just like this one but regardless of where he is he feels lost. 

“Lost in my eyes?” Zeren asks. 

“I’m not looking at you anymore.” Hyungseob turns away from Zeren for good measure. It would be a brilliant plan if not for the mirror lining the wall which shows Zeren grinning at him.

“You’re really not interested. I even called you pretty and you’re ignoring me.”

Hyungseob is trying to ignore the fact that Zeren called him pretty because he is already lost and a bit confused and he isn’t even sure he should be feeling so pleased with the situation when just moments ago he was moping about someone else who doesn’t like him back.

“My friends won’t believe me when I tell them about meeting someone so pretty. But they will believe me when I tell them that you ignored me.”

“I’m not ignoring you,” Hyungseob mutters. “You’re making me feel shy.”

“What would you have to feel shy about?” Zeren asks, closer this time. “Should I dance for you again?”

“Please, no,” Hyungseob says as he whirls to face Zeren. 

“Wow. That kind of hurts. To think I had been so confident in my abilities before.”

“You really are good.”

“I can’t be very good if you don’t want to see me,” Zeren sighs. He drops his shoulders and casts his gaze aside. “I am so sad now. I think I am too sad to help you to return safely.” 

“Please help me get back to my friends. I really liked your dancing but I can’t tell people about it if I am stuck here forever,” Hyungseob pleads. 

“You’re right,” Zeren says. “When your friends meet me they’ll definitely tell you to take a chance on me.”

“What chance?” Hyungseob mutters as he follows Zeren out of the room. The thing is Zeren is absolutely right and it is almost as though he knows the fact with certainty as he leads Hyungseob through the corridors and then into the main club. Seunghyuk and Euiwoong are located far too easily but it isn’t for want of trying on their side. “I have been lost, maybe for hours, and you didn’t think to come and find me?”

“You were gone for like ten minutes,” Seunghyuk retorts boredly. He raises his eyebrows and adds, “You made a friend anyway.”

“It’s nice to meet you. I’m Ding Zeren.” He introduces himself far too enthusiastically and Hyungseob hates how easily Seunghyuk accepts the greeting and introduces himself right before Euiwoong. And then someone else who Hyungseob doesn’t know too well.

This extra person is a shade taller than Euiwoong and says something that Hyungseob doesn’t even pretend to understand. 

“This is the guy from last night,” Seunghyuk says helpfully while Zeren and the guy from last night have an awkward conversation through the booming base of the next dance team’s music. Seunghyuk beckons Hyungseob and Euiwoong closer before saying, “Apparently his name is Zhenghao.”

“What do you mean apparently?”

“I think that’s what he told your friend but it isn’t easy to hear over how loud your heart-eyes for this Zeren guy are.”

“I do not have heart-eyes for Zeren,” Hyungseob denies.

“Yeah you do. Maybe you should take it easy for once in your life.”

“We’re not here to take it easy,” Seunghyuk says as he waves his hand in front of Euiwoong’s face to brush his comment out of the air between them. “Suck his dick or something.”

The weight that settles across Hyungseob’s shoulders is frankly… unsettling.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about but it sounds good,” Zeren says, voice too close to Hyungseob’s ear.

Seunghyuk smiles pointedly and says, “See, Zeren is already game.”

Before Hyungseob can lie and deny that he would ever want a part in this, Zeren shoots finger guns at Seunghyuk. “Nice save with Zhenghao’s name, by the way. He has literally no clue that nobody knew his name.”

“I am not sure that I believe you,” Seunghyuk says. 

Zeren shrugs and gestures for Zhenghao to shuffle into the cluster. He smiles at Euiwoong and it’s sweet. A shame that Euiwoong has only just learnt his name and cannot communicate with him in any intelligible way.  

“Seeing as all of Hyungseob’s friends are here I just want to ask a question,” Zeren says. “Do you think Hyungseob should let me take him on a date?”

“I would have said yes,” Euiwoong frowns, “but I don’t think using peer pressure is the right way to go about this.”

It is good that someone is on Hyungseob’s side but he sort of needs to put on a big show about how he would only accept a date with Zeren at the behest of his friends. He isn’t intentionally playing hard to get but he might as well pretend he needs some convincing because he is still confused over everything going on. 

“Ignore him,” Seunghyuk says. He starts speaking Chinese and instantly Hyungseob and Euiwoong are out of the conversation. 

“You just don’t want us to use peer pressure on you,” Hyungseob says to Euiwoong. 

“Being forced to do something isn’t a good reason. I am not going to make you go on a date with this guy if you don’t want to.”

“You won’t?”

“Of course not,” Euiwoong says pointedly. “It wouldn’t be fair to do things like that.”

“Even if it is something that I might need?” Hyungseob asks. Euiwoong looks confused but with the others distracted this is the only opportunity to quickly be honest. “He called me cute, Woong. I think I love him.”

Euiwoong looks terribly disappointed but there are certain things that can’t be helped. Euiwoong wouldn’t understand because the last thing he loved was a selfie which showed off the sharp definition of his abs. The selfie is still his profile picture on most of his social media accounts but it isn’t the same as loving a person and knowing that being called cute is all some people need. 

Seunghyuk shoves Hyungseob’s shoulder and he stumbles slightly. Luckily Zeren is there to catch him and dust him off (not that he actually requires such treatment) and when he smiles at Hyungseob he looks particularly cute too. 

Zeren clears his throat. “So, Hyungseob, are you going to be in Beijing for long? It would be cool if we could go on a date.”

“Yes. Please.”

“Yes?” Zeren asks. “Aren’t you going to pretend not to be interested again? Seunghyuk told me what to say to change your mind.”

Hyungseob doesn’t have a clue what Seunghyuk would have suggested to convince him to go on a date but he is fairly sure that Seunghyuk had known all along that convincing wouldn’t be necessary. 

“We are here for a bit more than a week. It would be nice if we could spend some time together.”

  
  


\---

  
  


“We get it, Seob, your virginity is growing back because you’re such a pathetic loser,” Euiwoong grumbles as he climbs over Hyungseob’s legs and trips on his way out of the bed. 

“Is there any need?” Hyungseob mumbles. He is midway between wakefulness and staring at the screen of his phone and willing it to do something useful. He and Zeren couldn’t swap numbers yesterday because Hyungseob’s phone is useless to him in circumstances like this. Then again, Zeren had been certain that things would work themselves out and all their dating intentions would come to fruition. It doesn't feel like everything will work out and Hyungseob feels like he was duped by a shallow dimple and an infectious smile. 

“I am not a loser,” Hyungseob says belatedly, because it is true. 

“Then why are you the one who begged to share a bed with me so you don't feel so lonely and Seunghyuk is the one who is probably eating breakfast with a stranger right now?”

Hyungseob can't answer that question because he doesn't understand how Seunghyuk does it. Maybe it is because he is tall and his smile could dazzle the stars out of the sky. Hyungseob doesn’t share that quality and is instead being called a loser by the only friend he has who prioritises him over getting laid. It’s Seunghyuk so it is unlikely that things didn’t go that way and Hyungseob is even getting left behind here. 

“Do you think Seunghyuk will come back today?”

“The guy looked hot but he probably has something wrong with him,” Euiwoong says thoughtfully as he digs a clean pair of underwear out of the drawer he unpacked his luggage into last night. “Seunghyuk isn’t the best judge of character when it comes to these things.”

“What do you mean?”

Euiwoong looks for all the world like he doesn’t want to be held up a moment longer but he still pauses in the doorway of the bathroom with his towel slung over his shoulder. “He’s always hooking up with people who turn out to be strange. You’ve seen some of them I’m sure.”

Hyungseob has seen plenty of the people Seunghyuk has hooked up with. None of them have seemed very strange but Hyungseob supposes it depends on what a person defines as strange. Euiwoong is arguably quite strange himself so his judgement doesn’t mean much to Hyungseob. At least it doesn’t mean much until Hyungseob has to wonder whether Zeren is a person who counts as being strange. 

“Is Zeren strange?” Hyungseob asks. 

“Get out of the bathroom!” Euiwoong shrieks. “Get out of here, I’m naked!”

Hyungseob doesn’t think it is fair for Euiwoong to be so mean when a friend is in need and is desperate to know whether he is also a person with bad taste. 

Hyungseob must decide for himself whether he has bad taste as he languishes on the suite sofa waiting for his turn in the bathroom. Zeren is good looking enough that maybe he could have tonnes of flaws that Hyungseob has overlooked. Maybe Hyungseob has terrible taste like Seunghyuk apparently does. 

Some of that bad taste arrives at the same time as Seunghyuk, skipping into the suite behind him while Hyungseob is nowhere near as dressed as he would like to be. Hyungseob pulls his dressing gown more tightly around himself but that doesn’t help the fact that he is far too exposed on the suite sofa where he had decided to sit while deciding whether he’d bother leaving the hotel room today. 

“Nice,” Zeren says as he dives onto the sofa beside Hyungseob. He sinks into the cushions with bliss on his face and smiles. “Are you going to get changed today?” 

“You surprised me,” Hyungseob says. “I didn’t know you were coming.”

“He was standing outside the hotel talking to a bunch of flowers,” Seunghyuk says as he takes the seat at the other end of the sofa. “I wasn’t sure how bad of an idea it would be to bring him in.”

“Why were you talking to flowers?” Hyungseob asks, hopeful that the answer to this question won’t also indicate that he has equally bad taste as Seunghyuk does. 

“I brought you flowers,” Zeren says. “But he told me not to.”

Hyungseob can already feel himself melting at the very thought of Zeren bringing him flowers and how nice that could have been. But he must make do with leaning around Zeren to glare at Seunghyuk. 

“This is exactly why I told him to get rid of the flowers,” Seunghyuk scoffs as he picks up the television remote and starts flicking through the channels. “I think you should at least give me and Woong the option of leaving before you open your legs. We would have been stuck here suffering the moment he gave you the flowers.”

“What are you trying to say?” Hyungseob asks even though he suspects he knows exactly what Seunghyuk is trying to say. 

“You’re easy,” is what Seunghyuk says, and also what Hyungseob had suspected he was saying. 

Hyungseob feels very sulky and he isn’t sure whether his mood is helped at all by Zeren leaning into his shoulder and saying, “that’s why I love you.”

“I love you too,” Hyeongseop says. 

Zeren laughs. “One day you will mean that.”

“Easy,” Seunghyuk says.

“Thank you for buying me flowers,” Hyungseob says because it would only be polite considering the effort Zeren had gone through to get them for him even if he had to throw them away. “I am sure they were beautiful.”

“Not as beautiful as you.”

“Okay I’m going to shower right now,” Seunghyuk says as he jumps up from the sofa.

“Woong’s in the shower though.”

“I’ll make him get out and sit out here listening to you two then,” Seunghyuk offers. 

Hyungseob doesn’t know exactly where he needs to go from here. He hadn’t expected to see Zeren this early, if at all today. He would have at least considered getting changed if that was clearly one of the options. As things are Hyungseob had assumed he’d be confined to the hotel seeing as Seunghyuk was out with some guy Hyungseob hadn’t even seen and Euiwoong was probably expecting the guy Hyungseob had seen a bit too much of to pick him up.

“Do you have plans?” Zeren asks. Hyungseob shakes his head and his response is met with a relieved smile. “Do you want to go somewhere today?”

That could mean anything but Hyungseob mostly hopes for something good to happen. He tells Zeren to wait for him while he rushes into the room he had slept in last night. The anticipation sparking in his chest immediately fizzles less than terrifically when he is greeted by Seunghyuk complaining about him very loudly to Euiwoong. 

“Please don’t start in here too,” Seunghyuk groans as soon as he spots Hyungseob (which is unfortunately long enough that he has to hear several of Seunghyuk’s complaints about him and the thankfulness he felt for friends like these at the beginning of the trip is dwindling rapidly). 

“Start what?”

“I really thought you’d brought him in here with you to tell both of us at once how much you love Zeren.”

“I do not love him,” Hyungseob protests.

“You literally just said it though” Seunghyuk points out.

“Leave Seob alone,” Euiwoong coos as he dries his hair with a towel. “He’s never felt like this before except for the fifty times before now.”

Hyungseob would love to refute that but he knows too well that words like that have come from his own mouth too many times to retain any actual meaning. He doesn’t bother with the trembling defence he could muster so instead says, “I’m going out. Let me shower first.”

Hyungseob is glad that it is that easy and Euiwoong even picks him out something nice to wear for afterwards. He manages to trick himself into thinking everything will be just as easy and it works when he goes back out to see Zeren and they leave the suite. They take a taxi and Zeren points out places of interest but Hyungseob isn’t sure that many of them are particularly interesting at all. And then it makes sense to Hyungseob when Zeren pays the driver. 

“I don’t have any money,” Hyungseob says. 

“That’s okay,” Zeren says. “I invited you on the date.”

“I don’t have any money at all. My card doesn’t work,” Hyungseob explains. He is doubtful that he does a good job because Zeren laughs and squeezes his hand. 

“Don’t worry. I’m treating you today.”

Hyungseob can’t refuse the offer seeing as he can’t pay his own way. This is just something to add onto his personal debt to Seunghyuk and Euiwoong and he tries to remember that when Zeren ignores Hyungseob’s uncertainty. 

Things turn oddly unfortunate when the place Zeren brings Hyungseob to turns out to be an arcade. Hyungseob is really beginning to doubt that he and Zeren can understand each other at all. He remains confused because this is a place which requires a fair bit of money. 

“Are you trying to make me feel bad?” Hyungseob asks. Zeren doesn’t seem to hear him over the blaring techno music which must subliminally encourage the compulsion to keep spending money to earn tickets. Hyungseob walks alongside Zeren and wonders whether he will end up feeling bad. 

Feeling bad in the arcade doesn’t last for too long. He ends up feeling even more confused than before when they have walked through to the back of the arcade to stand outside being told something in a language he doesn’t understand. Zeren helps him to fill in a form after replying positively to whatever they were being told. Zeren points to boxes and tells Hyungseob where he needs to write his date of birth and whether or not he has any medical conditions. 

“What is this for?” Hyungseob asks after managing to write his name in Hanja because he is assuming that’s what the form is looking for. Not that he actually knows anything to do with what the form is looking for. 

“Jiongxie,” Zeren reads. He looks thoughtful for a moment and decides on, “In case we die. They don’t have to give us money.”

Hyungseob wonders whether the distant rumbling and roaring of engines combined with all the gesturing he hadn’t even pretended to understand were signs of his encroaching death. “Are we going to die?”

“Do you think I would let that happen to you, Jiongxie?”

Hyungseob can’t answer that seeing as that moment is when he realises that he doesn’t actually know Zeren well enough to ascertain their safety. Luckily it seems that he needn’t worry about dying. They are at a go-kart track at the back of the arcade and even if there are kids on the track screaming at each other as they skid around the track Hyungseob doesn’t think there are too many risks to his mortality. 

“The weather is good today,” Zeren notes offhand. A yelling child whizzes past and Zeren glances over at Hyungseob in his kart and says, “You’re a very good driver.”

“Am I?” Hyungseob asks. He can’t drive a real car and they are moving at a gastropodic pace so it is easy to steer. He takes his eyes off the track for maybe a while too long as he thinks about how Zeren suits the overalls and the helmet. He just about manages not to veer into Zeren and thinks that he might make a good driver after all if he keeps his focus. “I think you’re a better driver than me. It would be nice for you to take us on a real drive.”

It would really set a nice scene if the two of them were alone, driving out into the countryside to admire the landscape together. The atmosphere might even be preferable to the screaming of kids as they come a hair’s breadth from colliding with everything around them. 

Zeren’s kart sputters to a stop and Hyungseob brakes hard to look back for all the banana peels he must have missed. There are no such obstacles, just Zeren staring at his steering wheel. 

“Zeren? Are you alright?” 

“I will buy a car,” Zeren yells as he stands up in his go-kart. “And I will learn to drive!”

Hyungseob almost worries that Zeren will attempt to achieve that all today but their hour around the track is followed by them enduring the the dimly lit arcade. 

Zeren turns to Hyungseob with the erratic gleam of the claw machine in his eyes and insists over the pounding music that he will win him a prize. Zeren gets increasingly agitated with each attempt but the one time the claw comes close to grabbing a toy the prongs slide over the cuddly toy's leg as easily as if it isn't there. Eventually Hyungseob has to stop Zeren, sliding his hands over the buttons and the claw drops into the pile of toys and returns to its resting place. 

“What did you do that for?” Zeren asks quietly. 

“I want a different prize.”

Zeren flaps about for a moment and looks at the nearby machines even as Hyungseob steps in closer and presses a kiss to his cheek. 

“Am I the prize?”

Hyungseob elects not to answer that and decides that he is too hungry to stick around here for much longer. Zeren, proclaiming it a matter of pride as Hyungseob’s prize, shows him all sorts of options for food. By the time they have walked around all of them Hyungseob feels more like a loser and he just wants to be able to sit down with whatever Zeren chooses. 

It is more effort than it is worth for Zeren to go and find things to bring back to Hyungseob but he is glad of having so much to try when Zeren returns with several courses of snacks for them both to enjoy. It is all tasty but for each item of food Zeren has a guarantee that he knows someone personally who can make something even better that Hyungseob simply must try. 

Hyungseob thinks he is being shown too much kindness when Zeren ignores Hyungseob’s half-reply about not being around long enough to try things and instead attempts a magic trick that someone had apparently shown him once. 

The trick doesn’t go the way Zeren hopes and he even calls up this friend, or a friend of this friend to ask how to do it properly. Hyungseob isn’t clear on the details but he quite likes Zeren’s determination and the fact that he isn’t the dumbest person present for once. 

Zeren continues to try the trick even when they’re leaving and he has way more napkins than anyone would never need while sitting in a taxi. That might be where he is going wrong with the trick too but he hasn’t said what the result is meant to be so Hyungseob keeps pretending to be impressed each time Zeren frowns down at the unfurling napkins in his hands.

The trick might be to create the illusion of Euiwoong kissing someone short who doesn’t work out. Hyungseob wants to walk right back out of the club Zeren has brought him to and into the dimension he belongs in with the Euiwoong who was claiming they had no interest in Zhenghao.  

“That is interesting,” Zeren says as he clutches Hyungseob’s hand tighter. This can’t have been the trick he wanted to show. 

Hyungseob shoves Euiwoong’s shoulder and almost gets punched for his trouble. He feels very pleased that Zeren gets in between Hyungseob and Euiwoong’s fist. Hyungseob files away the act of heroism for later because even if he can feel himself being slowly swept off his feet he is still baffled by Euiwoong’s change of heart. 

“Why are you kissing him?” Hyungseob asks. He sounds admittedly too much like he cares. 

Euiwoong has a special way of reacting to surprises and pretending everything is fine. He almost looks guilty for once but he turns square on to Hyungseob and he is his usual self again. “Why aren’t you kissing him?”

“How do you know I haven’t kissed him?”

“Maybe you should kiss me now,” Zeren says. Maybe he is right but the vindication on Euiwoong’s face is too much for Hyungseob. 

“We’ve kissed a bunch of times,” Hyungseob says confidently. He should have kissed Zeren at least once more to make this true but he’s lied to Euiwoong before. Not that Euiwoong hasn’t guessed each time. “Where’s Seunghyuk?”

“Buying a drink for some… pretty guy I guess,” Euiwoong says. 

“A pretty guy?”

The pretty guy is a shade shorter than Seunghyuk and dressed in an outfit which is hurting Hyungseob’s eyes. It is amazing that Euiwoong could take his eyes off the guy’s blue fur jacket and fishnet shirt for long enough to decide that this guy was pretty. He sips at his drink slowly and smiles as he offers Hyungseob and Zeren a hesitant greeting. 

“His name is Xukun,” Seunghyuk says, “Isn’t he amazing?”

“Yeah,” Hyungseob says. He isn’t really sure what he is supposed to find amazing but he suspects Seunghyuk knows different things about Xukun to what Hyungseob knows. 

Zeren says something to Xukun which seems to be good and has something to do with Zhenghao. Hyungseob hopes they’re talking about what a hypocrite Euiwoong is for all his talk about politeness. Not that he would have found out even if Euiwoong hadn’t suddenly said something in English. 

It is automatic for Hyungseob to copy Euiwoong and Seunghyuk at times like this so that he doesn't feel left out because he has nothing to show off. It is because Hyungseob is craning his neck in the same direction as his friends that he doesn't realise why Zeren is tugging so insistently at his arm. Hyungseob is glad of having Zeren around so he is kept in the loop. He isn’t sure he could have lived his life without seeing Euiwoong gobsmacked. 

It turns out that Zhenghao can speak English which is unfortunate for Euiwoong when he spends far too long making eyes at someone who isn’t Zhenghao. Not that it matters. Zhenghao is spending a lot of time trying not to look at another few newcomers to the group when they’re all sitting at a booth.  

Cheng Xiao is incredibly pretty and apparently consults with Zeren’s dance group. She has brought another member of the group along with her and he is noticeably tall and, judging by the looks Euiwoong is giving him, might even work out.  

“So you three came all the way here to see the dance festival?” Cheng Xiao asks as she plucks a shot glass from the tray she had ordered as soon as Zeren had invited her to sit with the group.

She has enough of a grasp of Korean that Hyungseob is somehow afraid to talk to her. He feels like she knows too much already even though she isn’t quite on the mark.

“We came here by chance,” Seunghyuk explains to Xukun more than anything. Xukun seems to appreciate it even if he hadn’t started off the conversation. “Luckily we found out about the festival when we got here. Otherwise we wouldn’t have had anything anything to do besides drink.”

They’re drinking right now.

“Is it lucky? Zeren has been missing some important practices,” Cheng Xiao points out. 

“That’s Hyungseob’s fault,” Seunghyuk says. Chengxiao identifies Hyungseob way too easily. He bristles under the stare and leans backwards against the booth. This is only the first day they have spent together so he doesn’t think it really is his fault. 

Hyungseob doesn’t get told off like he expects. Cheng Xiao only makes him promise to make Zeren come to his practices or else face the wrath of someone much worse than her. Hyungseob doesn’t have that much sway over what Zeren does but he half-heartedly agrees and takes a shot. Zeren immediately passes him another shot from the tray and tells him to be careful. 

  
  


\---

  
  


Hyungseob isn’t sure how Zeren is keeping count when he opens the door to the persistent knocking to a grin and a cheery, “The third date is the most important.”

Hyungseob has been on one date with Zeren and it was a whir of street-food and pretending to drive. 

He’s already dressed this time and it is probably because there was nobody around to indulge his moping all morning and he couldn’t follow anything on television well enough to watch it in his pyjamas for hours. Hyungseob can’t have been drunk enough last night to gladly send Seunghyuk and Euiwoong on their way merrily but they weren’t around when he woke up and at least that means they’re not around to see Hyungseob twirl Zeren into the suite and drop him when he tries to dip him.

“Thank you for the pain,” Zeren groans as he pushes Hyungseob off him. “Our date will be nice today. No pain.”

“Sorry.”

“Don’t apologise,” Zeren says. He straightens his clothes and looks Hyungseob up and down when they’re both standing. “You look good. But I liked yesterday.”

Hyungseob’s outfit wasn’t too different yesterday but his particular brand of smart-casual requires a certain degree of oversized shirts to look effortlessly chic. He tries very hard at maintaining his look but he won’t let Zeren know how difficult it is to look so effortless. Zeren doesn’t look like he would realise the amount of thought that goes into this seeing as he is wearing the same shirt he wore yesterday so maybe that’s what he means by liking yesterday. Hyungseob guesses he likes yesterday too but he also is trying very hard to impress Zeren. 

“Do you like yesterday’s outfit better than what I am wearing today?”

Zeren looks over Hyungseob carefully and shakes his head. “You look good every day. How do you do that?”

Hyungseob isn’t sure how to say ‘by changing my clothes’ without sounding like he is implying anything. He shrugs and decides it is a good enough time to change the subject.

“Did you plan a date for today?”

“Of course,” Zeren says. He is very emphatic about how great this planned date is but he doesn’t reveal anything about it even when Hyungseob asks whether he’s dressed appropriately. The reply is vague and somehow it is a route back to talking about how good Hyungseob looks. 

Hyungseob guesses he does look good because Zeren hardly looks away from him as they’re walking down the street, apparently on the way to their date location. Their journey involves a lot of bumping into people and a few near misses (of course Hyungseob isn’t entirely self-absorbed, he can hardly take his eyes off Zeren either seeing as he has an excellent vision so he isn’t going to waste that gift by not looking at Zeren whenever he could. But unfortunately that means nobody is looking where they’re going and one of the near misses involves a vehicle and a road and Hyungseob’s heart beating faster in an unfortunate way.)

Even though Hyungseob is happy to have been looked at with such wonderful weight by Zeren he suspects a date has not been planned. He is clued in to this possibility when Zeren takes him backstage of a club on a  street which should be familiar to him by now. There are some folded chairs set up in a place that looks like it might cause a problem to people trying to do their jobs but Zeren tells Hyungseob to sit there anyway and wait for him. It is when Zeren is no longer in sight that Hyungseob supposes he should acknowledge his surrounding and the person he is sitting next to. Euiwoong. Of course Euiwoong looks smug even if he probably doesn’t have anything to look smug about. 

“What are you doing here?” Hyungseob asks. He quite likes the way Euiwoong’s face tightens up. 

“Why shouldn’t I be here? This is a dance festival I am here to watch a performance.”

Euiwoong would be providing a legitimate answer if they were around the front of the stage. Seeing as they are sitting backstage Hyungseob isn’t going to accept that. He can be the lofty and unimpressed friend for once.

“Who do you know to get to sit back here?” Hyungseob asks. He doesn’t manage to keep the glee out of his voice but Euiwoong isn’t in the position to tell him off for it. He grins and leans closer as he drops his gaze down. “And how do you know this person who let you hang out in the same clothes as yesterday?”

“Be quiet, you.”

“Does he dance, your friend?” Hyungseob asks with a leer. 

“Everyone dances, that’s why we’re here, stupid,” Euiwoong says. There isn’t any heat in his words and his expression is lukewarm enough that Hyungseob almost feels bad for bringing out this guilt. But not too bad. 

“So you’ve worked out something so your friend isn’t too short and unfit?”

“What are you talking about?” Euiwoong asks. He is trying very hard to pretend away the colour rising in his face and he even crosses his legs to affect his illusion of calm. Hyungseob isn’t bothering to give him that much leeway and he must have made the right decision because Euiwoong isn’t answering anything very nicely at all. “When did I ever say that?”

It is surprising that Euiwoong wouldn’t remember saying something like that when he has such a strict type and someone so different to that has been trying to woo him all along. But Hyungseob feels annoyed at himself for being surprised long after Euiwoong changes the subject. They wonder about Seunghyuk’s location and what he has been doing and where he is and they pass comments on the groups of dancers as they watch the performances. It isn’t quite the same impact seeing things from the wings like this where the music doesn’t reach them properly and they’re on rickety little seats with tech and production staff bustling past and probably complaining about them being in the way, but they see some impressive groups and some not so impressive groups and they even see Zeren’s group and Euiwoong goes very quiet. 

Hyungseob is very quiet too because Zeren is amazing on stage and this is the first time he has been able to see him dancing with other people. He was impressive enough when they met in the toilets and he was probably good onstage that day when Hyungseob hadn’t been paying attention but there was no denying he sharp and clean lines of his movements. Dressed all in black against the backdrop of flames on the LED screen, Zeren is entrancing and Hyungseob doesn’t understand how he has ever been able to look away from him moving before. 

Zeren is beautiful. Hyungseob is determined to tell him that as soon as he comes off stage but after he has actually come to find Hyungseob he is with someone sort of familiar who hesitantly approaches Euiwoong. 

Hyungseob can’t string two words together when he’s craning his neck to see Euiwoong looking even more awkward than usual with someone who isn’t Zhenghao. “What is that?”

“What? Didn’t you like my dancing?” Zeren asks. He can frown all he likes as he blocks Hyungseob’s vision of what is in front of him but there are still things that need to be explained. 

“You were amazing,” Hyungseob says quickly. “Who is that with Euiwoong.”

Zeren glances over his shoulder and is smiling at Hyungseob too quickly for him to have believably seen before he says, “That’s my friend.”

“Why is you friend with Euiwoong?”

“I don’t know,” Zeren says. He pauses for a moment and peers at Hyungseob from a different angle. “Does it matter?”

It doesn’t matter that much. But Hyungseob is still highly suspicious of the circumstances. He feels bad for Zhenghao because he has seemed quite taken with Euiwoong who is now looking very cosy with Zeren’s friend at this moment. Hyungseob doesn't like it. 

But it doesn’t matter. 

“I’m being silly,” Hyungseob says. “You were amazing today. You’re an amazing dancer.”

“We both already know that.”

“We do,” Hyungseob admits. “You impress me a lot.”

“You impress me and I haven’t even seen you dance yet,” Zeren says. His voice is low enough that it is almost carried away by the sounds of set-up for the next performing group. But not quite so Hyungseob has to work to pretend he hasn’t properly heard so he can ask Zeren to repeat himself. “You’re awful. You heard what I said.”

“You can’t prove that.”

Zeren looks very pleased with the prospect of not being able to prove anything and he slides his hands down Hyungseob’s arms and squeezes his hands. “You already heard me before. But you’re amazing. You’re very impressive.”

Hyungseob thinks he is already feeling too cheeky from before. He grins and says, “We both already know that.”

Zeren laughs and Hyungseob is sure that it is a good sort of laugh, a real genuine one, because he looks a bit shy even though Hyungseob has seen him smirking and showing off many times before. He’s cute like this but he always is and it feels silly to have thoughts like that even though he isn’t the one who has skipped practices to try to cheer someone up at short notice because they were crying. Or after thinking they’re cute. Hyungseob isn’t sure of the specifics but he knows that Zeren has put a lot of effort into this. Hyungseob at least needs to put as much effort into making Zeren laugh like this. 

Hyungseob looks only at Zeren and doesn’t pay any mind to whether Euiwoong is still there or not. 

“You were really good today. I couldn’t take my eyes off you.”

“Will you come and see me perform in two days?” Zeren asks. 

Hyungseob doesn’t quite see the need for the question nor does he see the need for Zeren looking worried about the answer. Hyungseob grips Zeren’s hands tight and decides that in this moment he is worth nothing more than how he cares for the people around him. Specifically the person right in front of him. Zeren had given a lot of himself over and Hyungseob had spent all the days he had known Zeren reassembling the pieces inside his chest and that isn’t something Hyungseob had started for Zeren to look so worried about something like this. 

“Right now there is nothing I am more excited about than seeing you on stage again. Will I even realise anyone else is dancing with you?”

Zeren ducks his head bashfully but the grin he turns up at Hyungseob is quietly proud. “I hope you won’t notice anyone else. I am the main dancer for it. I don’t want you to see anyone else.”

“I won’t,” Hyungseob says. “You’re obviously the best one.”

“Maybe.” Zeren shakes his head. “I’m not really but they won’t forgive me if I ruin things.”

“You won’t ruin things. You’ll be perfect.”

Hyungseob is being nice but Zeren looks like he is trying incredibly hard to be gracious in his response to the words. There is no point in hesitating and remaining ignorant. “What is it?”

“I missed a lot of rehearsals to come and see you.”

“Oh, sorry,” Hyungseob said. This doesn’t feel like something he should be apologising for because he had never asked Zeren to skip dance practices but if it will get Zeren to stop looking so rattled he says it anyway. 

“No. I’m sorry,” Zeren says. “I can’t see you tomorrow, I don’t know if today will make up for today and tomorrow.” 

“It’s okay. You don’t have to see me every day,” Hyungseob says. He’s only on holiday. This is nothing serious but it won’t be long before Hyungseob doesn’t even have this much. They had only met three days ago so there is no reason to feel disappointed as though this is what he has been depending on. 

“I want to though,” Zeren says. 

Hyungseob is terrible. He’s so sure that he loves this man who is still more of a stranger than a friend. Zeren is new but he is treading on ground that has been worn away by too many others trampling over the Spring that had started to show signs of bearing fruit. He might only be saying things as a means to an end but this whole thing with Zeren has seemed careful.

Zeren is careful to seem cool and impressive and a little like he doesn’t care for the result even though he has been trying very hard for certain reactions that Hyungseob has been eager to give.

“Not seeing you tomorrow will just make me more excited to see you again. And before that we still have today, don’t we?”

Zeren shrugs his shoulders. “I have a practice this evening that I have to go to as well.”

“Shouldn’t we hurry up then?”

Zeren decides they should go so he spends a very long time hugging Hyungseob and saying that he will miss him while he goes to get changed. When Zeren does eventually go to get changed Hyungseob wonders how quickly time will get away from them.

Mostly they have been doing a lot of nothing and a very conspicuous amount of not doing something in particular. Seunghyuk frequently mentions that something which is not being done but Hyungseob doesn’t mind. He’s enjoying thing the way they are and getting to spend time with Zeren but their time is limited and each day is smaller than Hyungseob would like. 

Part of Hyungseob wants to laugh them off, these odd feelings that have settled more permanently over him than they should have, but Euiwoong has disappeared somewhere and he’s alone and half watching the tech staff preparing the stage for whatever is next. Hyungseob decides that he won’t say anything and he will try not to be so obvious about things because at least then he can pretend the weight isn’t pushing itself against his chest while he’s barely managing not to cave in. 

Zeren returns, back in his normal clothes, and Hyungseob forces himself to forget the things that have mattered too much to him. They leave the club and join the flow of people on the street and Zeren points them down the street to go to wherever Zeren had planned for them to go. Zeren talks a bit about how practices have been going, or not as he has been skipping them and making excuses to respond to each of the angry messages from the members of the group he hasn’t been putting in the hours with. 

It all sounds very irresponsible and Hyungseob has been on the other side of that, getting annoyed at people not pulling their weight and them not caring at all for the efforts everyone had been putting in. But this is different because Zeren wants to spend time with Hyungseob and it sounds like practices had been going well before. It would be fine. Probably.

Hyungseob turns back to see Zeren standing still, attracting the disgruntled glares and utterances of pedestrians who have had to walk around him, and it is a wonder what he is seeing on his way phone screen that had him falling out of step with Hyungseob in the first place. 

“Zeren?” Hyungseob isn't sure whether he is allowed to pry so deeply or even if Zeren wants to be asked but he tries it just in case as he retreads his strides to make his way back to him. “Are you alright?”

Zeren hums and says, “this boat looks better than where I want to take you. Do you want to go here?”

Hyungseob peers down at Zeren's phone only to find himself more confused of the situation. Zeren had claimed that he had things all planned out at the hotel yet now he's asking whether Hyungseob wants to go to a restaurant on a boat. He doesn't really care what they do together seeing as he is sort of relishing the fact that someone wants to spend this much time with him and is even trying to impress him too. 

Before he can say anything diplomatic that saves him from sounding as though he's here for the ego boost, his mouth clicks shut and he raises his hand to his cheek. The warmth was fleeting but the intention was unmistakable. Even now Zeren has taken a step back (incurred yet more disdain from passers-by in the process) and is looking very pleased with himself. 

“So,” he says, “what do you think?”

Hyungseob thinks he wants to get kissed again but that might not be what he should mention now. He doubts he would be able to smoothly make the request seeing as his tongue is already tied in his mouth and he can't even untangle it to make some excuse. 

“Again,” he just about manages to say. 

“Again?”

“Again.”

Zeren grins and kisses Hyungseob’s cheek again. This is something Hyungseob could get used to. But apparently Zeren wants him to make a decision so he pretends to look at the boat Zeren has pulled up on his phone and he says, “Whatever you planned is better.”

Zeren looks uncertain and kisses Hyungseob’s cheek once more just to make sure. 

They reach a taxi rank and Hyungseob thinks it might be alright to kiss Zeren on the cheek again. He smiles widely and holds his hand tightly.

Hyungseob is probably sure that steering a paddle-boat around a lake before stopping to have a picnic is probably better than the cruise ship dinner date. He doesn’t need Zeren promising to take him out again to make sure.

  
  


\---

  
  


Seunghyuk is somehow not impressed. It might be because Hyungseob crawls into his bed in the middle of the night and Seunghyuk wakes up by falling out of bed. In Hyungseob’s defence it is Seunghyuk’s own fault because he kept wriggling away from Hyungseob’s need for cuddling. 

“Hyungseob’s right,” Euiwoong says as he nurses something that looks surprisingly non-alcoholic. “If you had let him cry on you then he wouldn’t have pushed you out of bed.”

“I didn’t push him,” Hyungseob winges. This isn’t what Euiwoong is meant to say in a time of need. He needs an actual ally when he feels all alone in the world.

“You literally saw that Zeren guy twelve hours ago,” Seunghyuk huffs. He kicks out at Hyungseob as he gets off the floor which is even worse. A true friend wouldn’t kick Hyungseob at a time like this. But Seunghyuk has no sympathy and he drags the duvet off the bed. “How could you already have been lonely.”

“I love him.”

“You do not love him,” Euiwoong says. “And I told you last night to get ready early. I have definitely put weight on since getting here and it has only been a few days.”

“Zhenghao said he likes that though,” Seunghyuk grins. 

“So you can’t stop yourself from stuffing your face and  _ I _ get punished by having to go to the gym with you?”

Euiwoong looks half a mind from throwing his dull green smoothie over Hyungseob but he just about manages to control himself. Also Seunghyuk drops the duvet and prises the takeaway cup out of Euiwoong’s hands before any of it could be dumped over his bed. 

“I haven’t been stuffing my face,” Euiwoong growls as he points a finger at Hyungseob. But Seunghyuk isn’t safe either. “And Zhenghao said nothing of the sort. Probably. When did he say it?”

“What do you care?”

Hyungseob thinks Euiwoong has a fairly reasonable excuse for caring. 

“I can just ask him, you know. He will tell me why you’ve been talking about my body.”

“Who says we have been talking about your body?” Seunghyuk asks impishly. 

“Calling Euiwoong fat counts as talking about his body,” Hyungseob points out. 

Somehow this is the wrong thing to say (or speaking up at all was the wrong thing). Euiwoong shoves Seunghyuk out of the way and Seunghyuk falls onto the end of the bed after a stumble. But Hyungseob can’t even laugh because of Euiwoong’s advance. 

“You’re the only one here who has come close to calling me fat, you stupid prick!” Euiwoong doesn’t give up reaching for Hyungseob’s throat and it is difficult to say what Hyungseob possibly did wrong. Even worse is that Hyungseob gets rescued from being throttled, only to be forced onto the treadmill for an inordinate length of time. 

Hyungseob could barely be bothered to get dressed and go to the hotel gym with his friends but he did it. There was no reason his efforts weren’t good enough, nor that Euiwoong should be reaching across to the control panel of Hyungseob’s treadmill to raise the speed and the gradient. 

“Stop it!” Hyungseob grumbles as he slaps Euiwoong’s hands away. “What about Seunghyuk? Why aren’t you making him run?”

“He hasn’t ditched me every day for some guy who is just weird.”

“How is he weird?”

“I don’t know. I can’t really put my finger on it. But what are the chances you’d find someone like him who-” Euiwoong pauses and prods at Seunghyuk on his other side. Seunghyuk slows down his treadmill. 

“Are you talking about how Hyungseob is getting attached? Which you are, Seob, but you should try to ease off a bit. We’re going home soon, so consider that.”

Hyungseob’s pace stutters but luckily the emergency stop cord pulls taut and the machine comes to a full stop. “What should I consider?”

“You might be falling too hard,” Seunghyuk says. 

Hyungseob doesn’t like that warning. It is too late to be helpful (because Hyungseob knows how he feels and how quickly he has grown to like Zeren. He’s funny and flattering and a little bit silly. But he knows what this is and how there must be an ending at some point. He is pleasantly buzzing with something akin to love but this is the sort of happiness he likes and Hyungseob knows that any ending could arrive before the bad sorts of feelings from the past. There is no need for Seunghyuk to be saying things like this when Hyungseob knows what he is getting into) and it sounds like the kind of thing one would say whilst trying to sound smart. 

And Hyungseob realises it is worse than he thought. Euiwoong is thinking the same sort of thing too. 

“I don’t want to be at the gym anymore,” Hyungseob says. His friends don’t follow him out, which Hyungseob doesn’t mind at all because he looks like a mess and he ends up at some sort of cafe where all the customers seem to be drinking smoothies like he one Euiwoong had earlier this morning.

Hyungseob ends up at the counter before he realises he was even in the queue. The woman waiting to serve Hyungseob is helpful and she smiles a lot while pointing  at a menu on the standee beside her and saying “good.” She possibly helps Hyungseob charge his drink to his room tab, but he isn’t certain of anything besides the fact he doesn’t have to pay. 

Whatever happened at the counter the drink is just as good as the lady at the counter said. It’s pink and tastes somewhat like strawberries and something tart that he can’t quite place. It makes him feel healthy and maybe that very short run earlier did his body some good. Hyungseob has endorphins and a great view down to the sparkling blue of the hotel pool.

“You didn’t get far,” Euiwoong says with a grin as he takes the seat opposite Hyungseob at the table.

“How did you find me?”

“You have no money and no idea of how to get anywhere without being attached to that Zeren guy. Also I watched you leave and walk the five feet across the corridor to get here.”

“Oh.”

Euiwoong sighs and slides Hyungseob’s smoothie across the table to take a sip. “This is good. What is it?”

“I don’t know. The lady said it was good.”

“She’s right,” Euiwoong agrees. He stirs the straw around for a moment and asks, “Did we upset you?”

“I am kind of touched that you were worried enough to come and find me before your usual three hour workout was over,” Hyungseob says. Euiwoong at least laughs at that. 

“That and someone smiled at Seunghyuk so I had to get out of there before he turned on the charm.”

“He’s not that bad,” Hyungseob says feebly. He isn’t sure why he said that because he knows exactly how bad Seunghyuk he is and this is not the hill he wants to die on. Euiwoong raises his eyebrows and drinks more of Hyungseob’s smoothie. He ruminates on it for a moment and says, “You’re a really great guy, Seob, and you deserve better than anyone making you upset. Even if it is unintentional it isn’t something you deserve.”

“I know,” Hyungseob says slowly, “this is the stuff you’ve been saying to me for several months now.”

Hyungseob’s friends have been laying it on thick with all the positivity since he got dumped (but not really because apparently he wasn’t actually in a relationship) so he has heard all of this before. But this time is strange because there is very little in this world that would get between Euiwoong and a chance to claim he’s at eight percent body fat. Not even Seunghyuk being publicly indecent would qualify. 

“Woong, your friend.” Hyungseob is trying to address things delicately yet already Euiwoong is still. It isn’t the smoothie giving him brainfreeze. “Do you think you’re going to get hurt if we leave here and you don’t see him again?”

Euiwoong shakes his head. “Not me. Him.”

“So you do like him?” Hyungseob clarifies. He is expecting Euiwoong’s shrug in response. He tries again. “He’s nice.”

“I know he’s nice.” Euiwoong sounds very cross about that.

“Don’t you like nice people?”

“I expect you pushing me towards some guy who seems nice enough but Seunghyuk sleeps with anything with a pulse. Why is he making such a big deal about Zhenghao too?” Euiwoong pushes the smoothie away and rubs his eyes. “I don’t want this. I just wanted to get drunk and make a few mistakes. I’m not trying to meet my soulmate every time I leave the house like you. And now I have to worry about someone else’s feelings like that.”

It doesn’t even bother Hyungseob that Euiwoong said something that leaves a bitterness Hyungseob needs to chase away with the smoothie. But Euiwoong is right in a way. This was meant to be a lads holiday but Euiwoong’s face is showing far too much conflict for the plan to have gone the way they wanted.

“Woong, I know we came here to just have fun and admire the view or whatever but maybe you’re going about this wrong. You shouldn’t be looking to make a mistake on purpose. I don’t think you should be trying to sleep with people knowing you’ll regret it.”

“I didn’t realise I brought my mother to China with me.”

“Woong.”

“I know,” Euiwoong says tersely. “But now it’s too late and he told me he liked me and I need to somehow avoid him for the rest of the time we’re here even though he turns up everywhere. Before you say anything this is nothing like you and that Zeren guy.”

“But it could be.”

“No. I don’t want it to be. Besides I kissed someone else. I want to tell him so he understands but I don’t want to have to look at him and see that I have made him sad.”

Hyungseob gets it. He really does. And it shouldn’t be at all surprising that Euiwoong has a heart but it is surprising how he’s coming to Hyungseob like he’s the authority on anything. But Hyungseob has been heart broken before and at least if Euiwoong isn’t the one being heartbroken it is possible to minimise the damage he does to someone else. 

“This doesn’t have to continue after we leave.”

“Obviously.”

“I mean Zhenghao likes you and you could let him know how little his feelings mean to you by telling him that you kissed someone else. That he’s the mistake. Or you could let this holiday romance stay sweet. It’s not really love but it is something like it that you can remember fondly when you go home.”

Euiwoong is quiet for a long moment and then he says, “Which is it for you? Is Zeren your mistake or a fond memory?”

It’s not the same. Hyungseob thinks that at worst Zeren is a fond memory but it feels like something more. Then again lots of things have felt like something more and people have had to tell Hyungseob just how misinformed he has been about the state of things. He has thought the wrong thing far more often than he’d like to admit.

“Zeren’s… I like things the way they are now.”

Euiwoong scoffs. But Hyungseob doesn’t even have the time to decide whether he’s offended or not. Seunghyuk finds them and brings a friend who looks very pleased with himself. It probably isn’t from doing reps with heavier plates on the leg press judging from the state of his mouth. 

“This is Heni or something. He’s in a band!”

 

Euiwoong seems happy about the excuse of not meeting Zhenghao for the day, and he might even be using the time to consider what he is going to do. Hyungseob is using the time to wonder how to verify the claim that Heni is in a band. So far the only instrument Hyungseob has seen him play is  Seunghyuk’s tonsils and that isn’t much in the way of proof. 

That alone is suspicious enough but Hyungseob doesn’t have too much more time to consider his suspicions and ask Euiwoong about them because Heni has a friend who turns up to get annoyed at Heni and not do much of anything else until he realises that Euiwoong and Hyungseob are Korean. 

“Do you know girlfriend?”

Hyungseob doesn’t think he knows anything and Euiwoong looks just as flabbergasted as Hyungseob. It might just be because they have been brought to some weird bar to watch passable acoustic performances in the dimness but between the two of them they don’t come up with any answers. But then Heni’s friend makes a strange gesture with his hand like he is miming a ball into existence and he starts singing vaguely. 

Heni’s friend doesn’t have to go on for too much longer because Hyungseob works it out. “Oh! G-Friend!” Even with Hyungseob saying it and Heni’s friend agreeing very enthusiastically with him Euiwoong still doesn’t get it. It takes Hyungseob and Heni’s friend attempting the Glass Bead choreography in their seats before Euiwoong looks like he’s twigged it. 

“Are you talking about the girl group?”

“Obviously!” 

Euiwoong sips his boring beer. “Whatever.”

It isn’t ‘whatever’ at all and Hyungseob realises that he is sort of able to communicate with Heni’s friend (Siqi, a dedicated Buddy) through the medium of ordering each other drinks and ranking girl group songs. Euiwoong only really tries to join in because Seunghyuk is otherwise occupied with Siqi’s friend. The problem with only barely registering that Euiwoong is there at all is that Euiwoong definitely disappears at some point but Hyungseob doesn’t have a clue when that is. 

“Oh,” Hyungseob says when he looks up from the spreadsheet on Siqi’s phone where they had ranked the choreography of seventeen songs already. Did you see when Euiwoong left?”

Siqi isn’t that helpful. “Your friend’s gone.”

Hyungseob already knows that but there isn’t much he can do. He doesn’t know where to start looking. Also he and Siqi very quickly discover that Seunghyuk and Heni have disappeared too. 

“My friend’s gone,” Siqi announces. 

Somehow Siqi convinces Hyungseob to have another drink (though he doesn’t have to try very hard. He points to their almost empty glasses and pulls out his card and Hyungseob nods and agrees to stay put while Siqi weaves his way across the floor to buy more drinks. 

By the time Hyungseob wakes up, panicking because of the time (though there isn't anything to let him know what the time is) and remembering that at some point he agreed to meet Zeren before his festival performance, his phone is dead. He rolls out of bed, head swimming and promptly falls over. Hyungseob is still trying to remember how to make his arms and legs work when Siqi comes to find him on the bedroom floor. 

For a moment Hyungseob panics again but even as disoriented as he is he can work some things out. He’s still fully clothed and he might even have dried vomit on his shirt. That would have been enough of a deterrent if Siqi was interested in him like that but just like last night Siqi is all smiles and somehow starts talking in broken sentences about some Kpop group Hyungseob hasn’t been able to identify. Siqi is just the sort of person Hyungseob needs at a time like this and he lifts him to his feet. He helps Hyungseob stay upright and passes him a bottle of water from the mini-fridge in the room. 

“Did you sleep well?” Siqi asks. Hyungseob has no idea seeing as he is still drunk but he answers as positively as he can and hopes he hasn’t made a terrible impression on Siqi. 

It is Zhenghao who opens the door when Siqi drags Hyungseob to his own room and Hyungseob can’t quite work out what he is allowed to say about this as he gets passed over. Zhenghao just about manages to work out that he needs Euiwoong’s help to keep Hyungseob vertical before they can tip him into bed. 

The second time Hyungseob wakes up that day he remembers to plug his phone in to charge so he at least knows the time because it isn’t going to help him do much communicating when he’s out of range for the hotel’s wifi. He drags himself into the bathroom and throws up before he gets into the shower. He then looks almost human when he finds Euiwoong lounging on the couch in the suite. He scrambles to sit upright to make room for Hyungseob. 

“So you are alive,” Euiwoong notes. 

“I’m not drunk anymore,” Hyungseob says. His eyes are sore from the daylight and his head is pounding relentlessly but he thinks he got off lightly considering the gaps in his memory. Though he does remember some pretty important points. “You disappeared last night. Don’t think I don’t remember that.”

Euiwoong slaps Hyungseob’s arm lightly. “Are you ready to eat?”

“No way. My stomach still hasn’t forgiven me for last night.” It might be a while before Hyungseob can easily digest food again. “But seriously, where did you go?”  

Euiwoong sighs and folds his hands in his lap. “Someone wanted to talk to me.”

“I was drunk not stupid. Zhenghao was here. There’s no way you just talked.”

“Well you can prepare to be disappointed. We really did just talk. I mean whatever. We kissed a bit too. But the main thing is that we know where we stand. This isn’t a big deal. We’re just two people who met and that’s it.”

Hyungseob wonders whether he’s imagining the disappointment in Euiwoong’s voice. It sounds almost like Euiwoong broke up with Zhenghao except all Hyungseob has been hearing lately are denials that there is any sort of situation that would get broken up. It is difficult to offer sympathy when the reaction is likely to be another denial. 

Hyungseob does feel bad about things because Euiwoong had been so worried about hurting the feelings of someone who thinks they're closer than they are but it looks as though he managed to get hurt himself somehow because of a conversation. If Hyungseob had been hurt he knows that Euiwoong would know exactly how to cheer him up and begin the healing process. Hyungseob suspects he knows the same in regards to Euiwoong but there is nothing that will get him to the gym in this state. He's already on the verge of throwing up his insides without any physical exertion at all. 

He hopes his next best idea works out just as well. 

It is when Hyungseob has convinced Euiwoong that going out window shopping (and potentially getting very lost) that Seunghyuk turns up, smiling giddily and skipping into the suite.

“What crawled up your bum and died,” Seunghyuk asks, folding his arms as he leans against the door. Euiwoong doesn’t look at all happy to be asked a question like that.

“Don’t talk to me. You’re the worst person in the world.”

“Why?” Seunghyuk looks as though he genuinely doesn’t have a clue what could have brought this on. Hyungseob needs to do something to fix this even though he suspects it will make his head ache even more. 

“Hey, Seunghyuk, I need some help picking an outfit to go shopping in.”

“Aren't going to wear that?” Euiwoong asks with a frown. 

“I should hope not,” Seunghyuk clucks as he stomps over to the sofa to pull Hyungseob up and to the wardrobe in his room. He is really taking this seriously and Hyungseob is starting to doubt himself considering he had assumed the clothes he put on this morning were acceptable enough for public consumption. 

Euiwoong, luckily, doesn't join them in watching Hyungseob grow more ashamed of his clothing choices as Seunghyuk pulls more clothes out to lay on the bed. It wasn't even a serious concern. Hyungseob had just needed an excuse. 

“I don't think Woong is happy today,” Hyungseob says quietly. Seunghyuk pauses to look over his shoulder. His fingers falter in their grip on a patterned shirt that Hyungseob actually has regretted buying for a while. 

“What do you mean?”

“I don't think he'll be seeing Zhenghao again,” Hyungseob says delicately. 

“Oh, good. I was worried you'd both be boring and weirdly domestic with total strangers.”

“What about you? Is sleeping with like five people in as many days better?”

Seunghyuk grins. He takes a few slow steps before he reaches Hyungseob and pulls him into something that could be a headlock as easily as an embrace. “You know I haven't done anything of the sort. Why are you being such a bitch?”

Hyungseob would love to deny that but he's trying to be candid. He should accept the truth as well as he is trying to pass on another truth.

“Leave me alone, I'm hungover.” Not that he mentioned the most pressing truth first. “I think Euiwoong got dumped.”

“That didn't happen,” Euiwoong scoffs. It isn't fair of him to appear from nowhere but Hyungseob can't even feel sorry for himself about the fact that Seunghyuk didn't warn him because he'd jumped right out of his skin before grinning like a fool as Euiwoong kicks Hyungseob in the shin. 

 

Hyungseob feels a bit bad about the fact that window shopping turned into Seunghyuk genuinely buying him a lot of new clothes. He partly feels bad that Seunghyuk really does have such a low opinion of his style but he also feels bad that he has managed to get spoiled when Euiwoong is the one whose heart is hurting. 

“For goodness sake, Seob, pack it in,” Euiwoong huffs. Hyungseob absolutely cannot pack it in. His friend is teetering on the edge of heartbreak and is acting very brave as he eats a large panini. He is clearly suffering but Seunghyuk doesn't seem to care either. Only Hyungseob’s stomach is tangled with too much empathy to allow him to eat. 

“You're just hungover. Get a grip,” Euiwoong grumbles. Even if he's being like this Euiwoong would never normally talk with his mouth full. He really is bothered. 

“I should tell Zeren that I can't spend time with him tonight,” Hyungseob says as he ignores the entirely correct reminder of why he is the only one not eating. “We should do something with just the three of us so you can feel better.”

“ I'm fine. Besides, you're the one who will need cheering up if you have to spend another day away from… Whatever you're playing out with Zeren.”

“Oh gosh, can you imagine?” Seunghyuk muses. “Seob, you'd be twice as insufferable as you usually are. I will take care of Euiwoong and convince him to properly drown his sorrows.”

Euiwoong scoffs. “I can already guarantee that you're going to ditch me for the first person who so much as sneezes in your direction.”

“Can I help being a hopeless romantic?” Seunghyuk asks dreamily. Be definitely can help such a thing. He had already stalwartly resisted becoming a hopeless romantic for as long as he has been alive. There is another sort of trait which surely fits him better but Hyungseob doesn't particularly want to say it aloud. 

Euiwoong on the other hand doesn't have any such reservations. “Who would ever accuse you of being a hopeless romantic? I think the word you're looking for is sl--”” 

 

Euiwoong isn't talking to Hyungseob since he had his kick in the shin returned to him. At least Hyungseob was being sensible and only kicked Euiwoong to make him shut up and not ruin Seunghyuk's generous mood. Hyungseob does manage to get some more clothes out of the deal which are just about sufficient to repair the damage in his heart from finding out that Seunghyuk really hates all of his clothes, which doesn’t really matter much when Zeren is clearly not listening to him. 

“Don’t you think it is petty of Euiwoong to say I am not allowed to talk to him today?”

Zeren still doesn’t say anything and squeezes his arms more tightly around Hyungseob. He’s on the verge of bursting when he thwaps Zeren sharply. 

“Ow, my back!” Zeren exclaims as he staggers dramatically away from Hyungseob. “I use that to dance and seduce pretty people.”

“Who have you possibly seduced with your back?”

Hyungseob should have expected the flutter of eyelashes and the heavy-handed dash of lasciviousness in Zeren's reply of, “You, Love.”

It is more annoying that Hyungseob can't convincingly refute that and each time he stumbles over a verbal attempt Zeren takes a step closer and his grin widens until Hyungseob is back in his arms. They're back in the same hug Zeren trapped Hyungseob in after dragging him to a side corridor in the club. The corridor is a link between two of the venues participating in the dance festival so a lot of busy people have seen Zeren shamelessly clinging to Hyungseob like a baby koala. Hyungseob doesn't mind so much but his hangover has almost completely lifted and he would prefer more privacy. 

Of course, they don't get any more privacy because Zeren gets called back to the green room to prepare before his troupe’s performance and Hyungseob needs to shuffle back to the front of house. He isn't allowed to speak to Euiwoong after the kicking incident so he stands and decides to wait quietly for Zeren's group to take the stage. Seunghyuk is much less quiet. 

“Woong, I feel like you're trying to get rid of me on purpose but I'm sober and there's no amount of pretty people in the world who could get me to abandon one of my best friends.”

“You have abandoned me and the other one way too many times this week to sound sincere,” Euiwoong scoffs. 

“The other one? That's so mean, Woong, you kicked me too so we should be even.”

“Yet somehow we're not even and I am still mad at you,” Euiwoong replies. It's really not fair but Hyungseob can't begin to work out how to ensure that they are even. Seunghyuk shifts his weight on his feet between them and Euiwoong pats his arm sympathetically. “I will get you a drink right now if that’s what it takes to get you laid tonight.”

“Oh, Euiwoong, I had no idea you had intentions like that,” Seunghyuk swoons dramatically. 

“Forget it. I hope your virginity grows back and you never feel the touch of another human in your life.”

It doesn’t particularly matter but Hyungseob tells them to shut up and stop squabbling. Hyungseob can consider how to get back on Euiwoong’s good side after Zeren’s group perform. 

As soon as the lights drop Hyungseob changes his mind. He would hate to have to try to block out the sound of bickering when a spotlight casts gold over Zeren as he moves, fluently and beautifully, at the centre of the stage. His fluid motions sweep the other members of the dance group along as they’re doused with the bright light of the stage, conducted by his focus. There is grandeur and exceptional teasing with the rhythm and Hyungseob considers that Zeren was right earlier. Hyungseob is feeling very seduced and he wishes he wasn’t so easy.  

Maybe Hyungseob is biased but Zeren is magnetic and there isn’t anything in the world that could draw his eyes away from Zeren’s dancing. He’s a perfect fit for the song and the routine seems to have been created just to show him off. The others are impressive enough too and their hard work is easy to see but Hyungseob feels bad for not fully being able to appreciate their efforts. 

Just when Hyungseob thinks he can’t be more amazed the lights drop and spotlights follow the sharp domino of motions. The performance is over way too quickly and Hyungseob feels at something of a loss when the group leaves the stage. 

“Wow,” Seunghyuk says, “that was amazing.”

“It really was,” Hyungseob agrees solemnly. 

“I need to get a drink,” Seunghyuk says as he spares Hyungseob a pat on the back. “I need to talk to someone urgently.”

“That doesn’t even make any sense.”

Euiwoong waits until Seunghyuk is a safe distance away before he reaches for Hyungseob’s hand. “He is going to find someone to buy him a drink. I reckon it’s one of those guys who just danced.”

“One of those guys? But Zeren is one of those guys! Do you think it’s Zeren? Is he going to ask Zeren to buy him a drink?” Hyungseob asks. Euiwoong shrugs but that’s not helpful at all. He needs to go straight to the source so he tries to find wherever Seunghyuk went to drape himself alluringly over something. He finds Seunghyuk more quickly than he expects and he is even more disappointed than he expects when he finds Seunghyuk and Zeren together.

There’s also someone else with them but that’s not the point. 

“Don’t buy him a drink, you’re not allowed,” Hyungseob says. He’s being serious but Zeren smiles brightly and pulls Hyungseob to his side. He chooses not to address Hyungseob’s instruction and instead appears to introduce him to whoever the other person standing with them is (Yanchen, apparently, but that doesn’t mean much when Zeren decides it is more important to talk to this other person and Seunghyuk without confirming that he won’t buy Seunghyuk a drink.)

It is a short while later (long enough for Hyungseob to grow guilty about ditching Euiwoong somewhere) that Zeren leads Hyungseob to a spot further along the bar. 

“Why are you ignoring me?” Hyungseob grumbles.

“How can I ignore you, the light of my life?” He says too many nice things and Hyungseob hates how easily his mood can change just because of him. Zeren gets away with things with barely any effort, but his explanation isn’t so bad. “It was urgent. Seunghyuk needed to speak to Yanchen urgently. He wanted a natural introduction. But he did ask for that natural introduction right in front of Yanchen so I’m not sure how that will go.”

“I need to speak to you urgently,” Hyungseob said.

“What do you need to speak with me about?”

“I don’t want you to kiss anyone else or buy drinks for anyone else or flirt with anyone else. At least not until I have left the country.” It comes out more pathetically than Hyungseob would like but it is perfectly pathetic of him to have worried and wanted to ensure Zeren wasn’t being lured right into Seunghyuk’s bed. 

Zeren laughs though it isn’t exactly funny. “Who would I be kissing?”

“Anybody! You looked so good on stage. I need to make sure nobody approaches you with the same intentions as me.” He looks around but nobody is looking anywhere near Zeren aside from Seunghyuk. That’s disappointing and Hyungseob wishes they had moved further away.

“Why are you trying to set me up with your ex-boyfriend?”

Zeren stumbles over a few words before he probably starts making his excuses more comfortably. Seunghyuk, maybe because he is a true friend or maybe because he is just that unimpressed, helps keep Hyungseob in the loop. “How would I have known? A normal person would have put me off if I asked to be introduced to their ex.”

Zeren looks almost apologetic. Hyungseob isn’t sure it’s an apology meant for him though. “It’s not a big deal. You can sleep with him if you like. I don’t care.”

“I care!” Seunghyuk responds. He sounds almost hysterical. Hyungseob thinks maybe he really does need at least a gentle buzz of inebriation to function. Even if it's stupid and unfair, Hyungseob thinks he cares just a little bit about Zeren's ex being around. Especially considering how much rehearsal must have gone into the routine for this performance. 

But Seunghyuk should at least get settled at a time like this. “It wasn't anything serious though, was it?” Hyungseob asks. Zeren understands the subtext to the question and relief breaks over his face. 

“Yeah! We only hooked up like three times.” Zeren looks almost proud for a second. And then he changes his mind. “Per week. For two months. But that was very short. Not at all serious!”

This thing, whatever it is Zeren is doing with Hyungseob, can't be anything other than short. Their time is significantly shorter than than two months but he has been feeling that there is something serious about this. He frowns but he doesn’t even have a moment to wonder whether they don’t quite see things the same. Zeren shakes Hyungseob’s arm roughly. “This is very serious! This is different.”

“I don’t care how serious it wasn’t,” Seunghyuk grumbles. “I don’t want your sloppy seconds.”

“Are you sure?” Zeren asks. “You’re going to turn  _ that _ down?”

Hyungseob wonders whether he should be more upset about Zeren gesturing at his ex in such a fashion but he is quite upset about Seunghyuk being so picky about talking to a guy just because he was involved with Zeren a while ago to some degree. 

“Seunghyuk, please, you have to get over it. Someone else is talking to him already.”

Seunghyuk glances over his shoulder to verify Hyungseob’s claim and he even looks disappointed. Hyungseob is disappointed too. 

“I am begging you to go back over there.”

Seunghyuk sighs. “I’m not sleeping with him.”

“I’m not telling you to,” Hyungseob denies even though he kind of was. Seunghyuk huffs but he leaves Hyungseob and Zeren alone to shove the person trying to get Yanchen’s attention. Hyungeob decides he doesn’t need to see anymore of that because, as Euiwoong accurately said, he’s kind of too much. However Zeren is also too much. “Stop looking at me like that.”

“Like what? Like I love you?”

Definitely. But is sounds like a strange thing to have to ask for. Instead of asking for something that he doesn’t really want he says, “You should buy me a drink.”

Zeren agrees with that, only he buys Hyungseob a lot of drinks. They find Euiwoong and they dance a bit with drinks in their hands and Zeren introduces Hyungseob to his friends and they get a round of shots and they get more drinks and they dance some more. It is a cycle of the same thing until Zeren disappears and leaves Hyungseob with Euiwoong and some sort of familiar guy. 

Because Hyungseob is probably a genius he reasons Zeren must have gone to the toilet. It is a sensible answer for why Zeren disappeared at all. Unfortunately Zeren isn’t that sensible when Hyungseob gets there. He’s locked in a cubicle and it takes a while before he works out how to open the door so Hyungseob can scrape him off the floor. 

 

Directing Zeren to the toilet to throw up isn’t anything Hyungseob had expected from this holiday. All week Zeren has been doing a good impression of someone who can handle their drink and Hyungseob can’t quite work out why tonight would be any different. It is unfortunate that this is how their first night in the same bed goes. 

Hyungseob drags Zeren back to bed after helping him to rinse out his mouth and then he changes his top and wonders whether leaving the one he was wearing in a sink of full water would be enough to stop the sick from setting. Thoughts of asking for advice Euiwoong about it later crumble when Hyungseob gets to the bed and checks the time on his phone. 

Zeren is snoring at 3:28am and Hyungseob’s phone received a message four minutes ago. The message was carried over WiFi and Hyungseob wishes he had a way to be unreachable by that method too. It is unfortunate that after hearing a little about Zeren's ex, his own ex would force an uncomfortable reminder in the middle of the night. 

It seems strange to have this option of reading the message and making himself sad. It isn't as though he needs to do it. So he doesn't. 

Already Zeren is grumbling and belching the sour wishes of alcohol regret and Hyungseob makes the decision in a snap. He blocks the contact that sent the message and helps Zeren back into the bathroom. 

 

Hyungseob doesn't quite understand why Seunghyuk is in the suite when it is probably morning, or more likely the afternoon. He decides not to question it though because Seunghyuk is suspiciously happy to see him. He draws Hyungseob into his arms and holds him tightly while Euiwoong snickers from the sofa. 

“Thank you, Seob. I should have listened to you from the start.”

“I don't get it. Are you alright? What's going on?” Hyungseob asks. He manages to tear himself out of Seunghyuk's grip but he gets a kiss on the forehead before he can escape to the safety of the seat beside Euiwoong (all the more safe due to the vast quantities of food spread onto the coffee table). The unfortunate thing is that it isn't particularly safe because Seunghyuk just follows him and cuddles against his side. Hyungseob is worried “What's going on?”

“This is your fault,” Euiwoong grumbles as he helps himself to some of the breakfast spread out before him. 

“If there is ever anything you need me to do to thank you, Seob, tell me and I will do it in a heartbeat,” Seunghyuk says very seriously. 

The thing is Hyungseob remembers leaving Seunghyuk with Zeren's ex and he had been reluctant about it last night. And now Seunghyuk is here, presumably alone and smiling as though he won the lottery or whatever it is rich people dream of. 

“Without making me feel sick, what put you in this good mood?”

“Your Zeren has a surprisingly good taste in men,” Seunghyuk sighs. Hyungseob can't help but feel offended as he had assumed until this point that he was an example of such good taste himself. But Seunghyuk looks happy to have said something quite rude. “Yanchen is an amazing man. Like. Extraordinary.”

“Please be considerate about how much of your sex life has made me feel sick in the past,” Euiwoong says. He has a point. Hyungseob doesn't exactly want a play-by-play of this. 

“Why are you here now?” Hyungseob asks. “Normally when things go well you tend to have breakfast with them.”

“I didn't marry him. I got what I needed,” Seunghyuk says sombrely. “I am recharged and ready for whatever else we want to do while we're here.”

“How about you start with listening to whatever Seob was trying to tell us before you started kissing his feet,” Euiwoong suggests. 

Hyungseob had forgotten that he had begun the morning by trying to tell Euiwoong how emotionally strong and independent he had become. Seunghyuk's excessive gratitude had been distracting so Hyungseob decides to start what he had been saying all over. He tries his hardest to emphasise the strength of will not to read past the message preview that had alone read as being fraught with desperation. 

“I was mostly hoping you'd tell him where to shove it,” Seunghyuk sighs solemnly. It is one thing to be petty but Hyungseob almost can't believe how serious he is about it. Then again this is nothing out of the ordinary for Seunghyuk if not understated. 

“Well I am proud of you,” Euiwoong says as expected. “Ignoring him is the best you can do in this situation. I hope he suffers even half as much as you did all this time.”

Euiwoong always knows all the right things to say but for reason this sounds like it is aligned far too closely with Seunghyuk's sentiments. 

“It must have been a drunk text. I think he'll just be annoyed with himself for sending it. He's not really the type of person to suffer over not getting a reply off me.”

“Oh my gosh,” Seunghyuk groans as he kicks the table. “You're the worst! Seob, you're funny and attractive in every conceivable way. Anyone in the world would do anything at all just for you. Just this once be happy that Woojin finally got with the programme when it was too late. Just be happy that the tables have turned and you can be just as mean to him as he was to you.”

There isn't any appeal in being mean though. Seunghyuk goes on at length about how he would relish every second of making an ex lie prostrate at his feet for the right to even beg for the time of day. Hyungseob tunes most of it out because he has unfortunately been around several times too many when Seunghyuk made this demand and people have actually choked back their pride for an audience with Seunghyuk. Hyungseob isn't that type of person. He'd never even manage that level of haughtiness in artifice. 

Instead of taking pleasure in Woojin mistakenly contacting him in the dead of night, Hyungseob endeavours to make the most of his final few days here. He's ready for all sorts of fun and none of that has any bearing on how pathetic he had been in all the days and weeks leading up to this moment. Unfortunately Euiwoong is feeling far more delicate than Hyungseob and Seunghyuk so they decide to stick with him as he lazes around for a day instead of going out and exploring the world they don't see every day. 

Hyungseob can't really say he minds when Zeren is sitting on the side of the pool and watching him swim around. Zeren is probably more delicate than even Euiwoong today so he only immerses his legs in the water just in case any aquatic activities churn up the grim acid of his stomach too much. He is wearing sunglasses and spends a lot of time being openly vulgar about where his eyes are looking. Hyungseob sort of wishes Zeren would shut up but that thought fades away to the happy fizziness that has him struggling not to show off. 

He swims over to the ledge and Zeren grins and reaches to hold Hyungseob’s shoulders. His thumbs swipe idly at droplets of water and Hyungseob is more surprised at how quiet he is than he'd like to admit. 

“Is this all it takes to get you shut up?”

“No.” Zeren can deny it all he once but there is a something akin to reverence in his tone and the focus of his own hands. It is a bit much. They're only shoulders. 

“What are you thinking right now?”

“It's a shame there are so many people around,” Zeren whispers. That's rich considering he hadn't minded everyone else as he shouted across the water how good Hyungseob’s body looked. It was nice to hear seeing as Hyungseob didn't put in effort just to hope it went unnoticed but each time Zeren had opened his mouth Hyungseob’s dread had mounted with the knowledge that Seunghyuk and Euiwoong were filing it all away to make fun of him later. 

Zeren stills his thumbs and presses them into Hyungseob’s skin to bleed away the colour under his own force. “I want to see all of you. Is that bad?”

It isn't bad but that is more just a general thought. Like Zeren said there are a lot of people around. It is bad when Hyungseob takes that into consideration. 

The water sloshes around Hyungseob’s chest as he pushes himself away. He tells Zeren it isn't a bad thing but he feels all sort of impatient. They've shared a bed and they've even shared a few kisses but they are falling far deeper into the need to be close. Hyungseob feels like he had been forgetting that flattery and attraction (things he craved) had been what drew him in before the rest of the world crumbled away beneath his feet. 

Swimming seems sort of pointless now. Hyungseob feels impatient and his skin prickles with heat and all this time he had embarrassingly forgotten that anything else was there that made him want. 

He tries talking to Euiwoong but it doesn't go well at all seeing as Euiwoong assumes the intent to be a chase or a race. Hyungseob gets tired and wonders why he bothers, especially when he puts his feet on the bottom of the pool and stands to watch Euiwoong's frolicking attract the attention of quite a few people who are interested in racing and chasing. 

He tries sitting with Seunghyuk who has presumably not approached the pool in case being waterlogged hinders his chances of getting someone cute to buy a drink that will mix in his stomach with the three cocktails he has already swigged back. His advice is to be vulgar and try something right here at the poolside, but Hyungseob wouldn't need to be as sober as he is to know that this is a bad idea. He advises Seunghyuk not to get into the pool before he leaves and Seunghyuk snorts and says the lifeguard is way too ugly for him to be interested in any rescue. 

Zeren ends up lounging on a lilo while Hyungseob is getting worked up over not knowing what to do. Zeren is only touching Hyungseob’s shoulders so it really shouldn't have led to a feeling this frantic in Hyungseob’s gut. Only the feeling is already very present until Hyungseob takes a moment to watch Zeren rotate in the waves created by swimmers several metres away. Hyungseob swims over, attempting the breast stroke because he assumes it will disturb the water minimally. But Zeren spots him quickly anyway and lifts up his sunglasses to squint the sun out of his eyes to see Hyungseob’s approach. 

“How's the hangover?” Hyungseob asks. It seems prudent to check these things, especially when there might be another person in the vicinity who will soon need to be peeled off the floor. This has only been the one time but Hyungseob already prefers looking after Zeren. 

“Good. Better now that you're close to me again.”

“I was very close to you last night but you were still hungover then.”

“Only because I was so drunk on you,” Zeren says. He lifts his sunglasses higher so the suggestive undulations of his eyebrows are unobscured. It isn't necessary but Hyungseob appreciates the effort all the same. He treads water beside the lilo and wonders whether he is successfully appearing to function like a normal person. 

He thinks he is failing. 

“You really say the cheesiest things.”

“Yeah,” Zeren agrees as he reclines on the lilo. He lets his sunglasses slip down over his eyes and he reaches a hand across the surface of the pool. “But the things I want to say are much scarier.”

Hyungseob isn't sure he wants to know what that means but he supposes he goes the right way about finding out anyway. He manages to drag the lilo to the edge of the pool despite how difficult Zeren's whingeing and flailing makes the journey.

At the poolside Hyungseob heaves himself up onto the concrete and he drips water all over the baking ground as he waits for Zeren to fall off the lilo and follow him ashore. 

“I have a hangover,” Zeren points out with a surly tilt to his mouth. 

“Well I have something I need to know,” Hyungseob retorts. He feels immature and silly for being so contrary but the pool is busy so he needs to hold Zeren's hand in case they get separated. Hyungseob wishes he could get separated from Seunghyuk though. The only empty sun loungers happen to be in Seunghyuk's hunting radius so privacy is well out of the question. Zeren agrees that's not a good thing. 

“We are still around lots of people. And your friend,” Zeren points out impatiently. “It feels like you are trying to put me off.”

“What gave you that impression? Is it working? Are you put off?”

“No,” Zeren says, sounding almost sad about it. “I am totally put on.”

“Eww do you mean turned on?” Seunghyuk asks far louder than necessary. Zeren smiles sheepishly but he isn't supposed to be smiling at Seunghyuk's disgust. The situation calls for Seunghyuk to become so incredibly disgusted that he leaves or for Zeren to be flustered out of whatever camaraderie he feels a part of. 

“I hope you do mean that because I have been turned on since the moment we met.”

Hyungseob’s face feels hot even before he finishes his sentence but he can be proud of a job well done when he sees how Zeren struggles to process what he has just heard. Better even than the stricken expression strengthening on Zeren's face is Seunghyuk's revulsion. 

“We can't be friends anymore. You're really the most disgusting person I have ever met.”

Seunghyuk is even disgusted enough to get up from the sun lounger to find safety elsewhere without any of his belongings. Hyungseob thinks that's rich seeing as Seunghyuk has put him through the ordeal of listening to much worse stuff but he can't bring himself to mind when his plan is such a resounding success. 

“Is that true? Have you been turned on by me the whole time?”

Hyungseob feels like he has made a mistake. He mostly only said it to get rid of Seunghyuk but now it has brought up a question that doesn’t have a correct answer. So he decides to change the subject. “Are you hungry?”

“Please don’t mention food. I am delicate.”

“Oh. Well. That’s a shame.”

“The real shame is how you won’t answer my question.”

This really isn’t the place for a conversation like this. Just in case. Hyungseob feels like things could go a strange way. He grasps Zeren’s hand and pulls him up from the sun lounger as he gathers Seunghyuk’s room card. 

“I’m delicate!” Zeren protests as he scurries along behind Hyungseob. The soggy slaps of flip flops finally stop when they get to the hotel lifts. Hyungseob presses the button on one of them and thanks the stars it is already on their floor. Inside the lift Zeren seems a lot less delicate. “There are a lot of mirrors in here.”

He’s right though. 

“Your back is insane,” Hyungseob says. 

Zeren lifts his sunglasses onto his head and smiles. “You really think so? Do you want to look at it more?”

“I can already see it in the mirror. And I can see your face too. I like your face.”

“I like your face too,” Zeren smiles. He looks very pleased with that assessment and he can’t stop smiling as he speaks. 

Hyungseob decides he needs a closer look at Zeren’s face and back.

“We are going to get into so much trouble,” Zeren says, his smile turning sharper.

“For what?” Hyungseob takes a step back. “I’m not going to have sex with you in a lift!”

“What?” Zeren’s alarm is more extreme than it should be. He should not be surprised that Hyungseob wouldn’t want to have sex with him in a lift. “No. We’re dripping water everywhere! Did you really think I was suggesting that?”

“No,” Hyungseob lies. “I was just checking.”

“What sort of person do you think I am?” Zeren asks. Hyungseob can see him deflating as he asks the question. It is really quite terrible. 

Even worse than Hyungseob’s implication is the lift doors opening. The lift hasn't moved and that would be on account of the fact that neither of them pressed any of the buttons on the panel. The couple standing outside the lift shuffle out of view and Hyungseob hears them impatiently jamming the buttons to call any of the other lifts. The lift doors close.

“We should go up to the room.”

“Alright,” Zeren agrees dourly. 

Hyungseob presses the button for their floor and turns back to face Zeren. “Sorry. I didn’t really think you were suggesting…”

“Yes you did,” Zeren grumbled. He didn’t look so grumpy for long. “I hope you don’t really think I am a person like that. But if you do think that is it in a cool way?”

“What do you mean?”

“Do you think that I’m really suave and cool? And I am used to seducing people in interesting places?”

Hyungseob hesitates but he supposes honesty is key. “I don’t think that.”

“Why not?”

Zeren has said all the right sorts of things but Hyungseob is friends with Seunghyuk and Euiwoong. He is well aware that Zeren hasn’t needed to try very hard at all to look like a good option. He’s nice enough but there are some things that have been said that ring too true about Hyungseob. Namely that he’s easy so Zeren could be a bumbling fool and Hyungseob would be equally as taken with him. 

From the way Seunghyuk and Euiwoong go on Hyungseob is beginning to think that he might be blind, specifically to the possibility that Zeren really is a bumbling fool that hasn’t had to try at all to get on Hyungseob’s good side. 

The lift doors open and Hyungseob takes Zeren’s hand and leads them along the corridor to the suite. “How many people have you seduced? Anywhere. You don’t have to tell me only interesting places.”

Zeren is the one to hesitate outside the room. “Why do you want to know?”

“Just curious,” Hyungseob says. “You’re the one who brought it up.”

“I don't know. Loads. I lost count,” Zeren says. Hyungseob is confident that's a lie. They go into the suite and Hyungseob fetches towels from his room so they can dry off before they risk getting into trouble for dripping all over the furniture. 

It is when Zeren starts looking for his clothes to change back into that Hyungseob says, “We're alone now. So it would be less embarrassing if you said things that you wanted to.”

Zeren abandons his search to frown at Hyungseob. “What do you want me to say?”

“Whatever you want. Be honest. Say anything in your head.”

“You're being strange,” is the gem Zeren comes out with. Hyungseob isn't best pleased. 

“I want to know what you're thinking,” Hyungseob says. He sits down on the bed but he thinks he might still look cross. Zeren dithers for a few moments and clutches the towel, and the shirt he always seems to be wearing offstage, to his chest. 

“Why do you need to know my thoughts? Can't we just spend time together nicely?”

“You're the one hinting at things. You clearly want to tell me something.”

Zeren oddly looks as though there isn’t anything in his head that he’d like to share. Not anything ‘scary’ or otherwise. That’s rich considering the sorts of things he’d been saying when people were around and Hyungseob hadn’t felt able to ask. And now they are at a place which is convenient physically but not so much practically. They should be able to talk. 

But Hyungseob hardly has time to waste. 

“I want to tell you something,” he says.

“What do you want to tell me?”

“I like you a lot.” It's nothing new and Zeren smiles at the sentiment he could have guessed before now. He beckons Zeren closer and has his own smile when he sees how easily a quieter happiness comes to him. “I don't want to leave when all this is over and think that I haven't liked you the most that I possibly could.”

“What do you mean?”

“I.. We're not in a lift now.”

Hyungseob can see Zeren's mind working that one over until the furrow in his brow dissolves into tentative confusion. 

“We were in the lift before. But now we're not. Now we're in your room, right?”

“That's right,” Hyungseob says even if such an obvious statement doesn't require a reply. Zeren takes another moment to think but he doesn't look happy with where he ends up as he stands over Hyungseob. 

“Now I am thinking something. But you should tell me first. I might be thinking the wrong thing.”

It is definitely frustrating that Zeren has spent a lot of time building up bravado and saying things which make Hyungseob blush. Things like that shouldn't be exclusive to the times they have an audience. But Hyungseob isn't going to hold that against Zeren. Like he said, he has limited time. 

What Hyungseob does hold against Zeren are his hands. He curls his hands around Zeren's waist and draws him closer, close enough that he needs to shuffle onto the bed on his knees. There's a sharpness to his expression and his eyes glint cheekily. 

“I'm still not feeling very well,” Zeren grins. He certainly is delicate as he discards the towel-shirt bundle and settles in Hyungseob’s lap. “We'll have to be very careful.”

Hyungseob thinks he's very careful as he pulls Zeren on top of him and lies back on the bed. Unexpectedly there truly is something careful about Zeren as he touches Hyungseob everywhere he can, not just his shoulders, and kisses him with growing languor. 

It is strange, Hyungseob thinks, that they haven't kissed like this before but he's glad that finally he might just get to use the small pouch of supplies Euiwoong gifted him on the first day. 

The entire time Zeren is still incredibly careful and Hyungseob wonders whether he’s the one who must appear so breakable when Zeren’s the one still recovering but it isn’t until Zeren’s done kissing him all over that Hyungseob thinks that perhaps he is. Maybe he’s too tired from the trip and having too many late nights or the heat from the sun by the pool got to his head but he feels all sorts of giddy about the fact that so much of their skin is touching. 

It isn't anything to write home about (rather, it isn't anything he'd afflict Euiwoong and Seunghyuk with having to hear about) but there is something novel in Zeren asking Hyungseob if he likes the way he's touching and if it is alright to touch a little more. He's never felt so involved in someone pressing their fingers into him and already that sounds like it isn't quite right, but he can't help but take private pleasure in it all. Even when he opens his legs wider it is something Zeren smiles at and he asks how much more he should do as though Hyungseob isn't struggling to hold back the reply that he wants Zeren to do everything to him, with him. 

It feels selfish but Hyungseob settles himself by deciding he's on holiday so some things will should be different and interesting even if just to make a better memory. He'll be more than happy to remember this several months down the line. 

Perhaps the universe is confused by Hyungseob shedding all the usual awkwardness around sleeping with someone for the first time because the bedroom door opens after they've tried a few different things. It would be nice to ignore an interruption and pretend not to have heard but Hyungseob looks over his shoulder against his better judgement. He tries his hardest to see the positive in the situation that he has his back to the door since Zeren pulled him on top and said he wanted to see Hyungseob like this too. Zeren's seeing Hyungseob alright, as is Euiwoong who might be suffering from an accidental-voyeurism-related brain injury judging by the stress wound into each feature of his face. 

“Oh. Woong, can you, like, leave?”

“Can I…?”

Hyungseob doesn't like the sound of this. Even when lost for words Euiwoong is usually much more vocal than this. He might be broken and Seunghyuk isn't going to be happy about taking on the full responsibility of boosting Hyungseob’s ego. 

Eventually Euiwoong slams the door shut and things are private once more. Not that a closed door does anything for Hyungseob’s self-consciousness, even with all the pretty words Zeren gasps against his skin. 

 

“Hey, Woong,” Hyungseob tries when he goes to find Euiwoong later. It isn't a particularly promising sign that his friend is starfished on the bed in his room and staring at the ceiling. 

“Die.” 

Hyungseob flinches but it isn't the worst thing to hear when he's been warily watching his catatonic companion from the doorway for a few minutes. 

“I'm sorry you had to walk in on that. Did you need something?”

“You know what's messed up? I have put so much effort into avoiding whatever sex Seunghyuk has been having every minute of every day yet when my guard was low you sprung that on me.”

“Why are you making it sound like I tricked you? It was an accident,” Hyungseob grumbles. 

“I'm no expert but that didn't look like an accident to me.”

“Obviously the sex wasn't an accident!” Hyungseob realises too late that he's trying not to sound cross so he takes a breath and tries again. “I didn't mean for you to see it. And aren't you happy I finally got to start using that condom kit you gave me? It was just what I needed because things were getting strange with Zeren. We kept missing each other's meanings and we needed a soft reset.”

“A soft reset?” Euiwoong repeats. Maybe he's right and it doesn't quite make sense. 

“A hard reset.”

Euiwoong sits up. “I am going to have to ask you to leave and never speak to me again.”

“But, Woong--”

Euiwoong points his finger at Hyungseob and he supposes the conversation has been forced to an end. Hyungseob returns to his own room in the suite and crawls back into the bed with Zeren. 

“Is he alright?” Zeren asks as he wraps his arms around Hyungseob. It's comfortable like this and maybe Hyungseob is the more breakable one if Zeren sees fit to hold him together with his arms. 

Seeing as Euiwoong is so determined not to be caught out as someone anywhere near as breakable as Hyungseob it is a fair assessment to decide he's more than alright. Hyungseob sinks more heavily into Zeren's arms and says, “Let's not talk about Euiwoong. He has already disturbed us once today.”

  
  


\--- 

  
  


Seunghyuk spends a lot of time looking confused. Hyungseob understands. He isn’t exactly the neutral party this often. It must be too novel of an experience for him to know what to do every time Euiwoong refuses to speak to Hyungseob. 

“This week has gone fast. I can’t believe we're leaving in two days,” Seunghyuk says over lunch. “Do you have your surgery scheduled?”

“Surgery?” Zeren asks. He looks extremely worried and attempts to hold Hyungseob even closer against his side as though that will help him to detect any health concern. 

Seunghyuk nods very solemnly and it is this already affected gravitas which indicates what is coming next. Seunghyuk leans back in his seat and gestures widely with his hands at Hyungseob and Zeren. “The surgery to cleanly separate you.”

“Ha, ha, you're the funniest person in the world,” Hyungseob says drily. He gets the joke and he also gets why Euiwoong would be snickering into his lunch and doing a shoddy job of pretending not to be there. “There's no need for surgery. I'm taking him with me.”

Euiwoong chokes. Hyungseob supposes that serves him right. 

“No disrespect but there's no way you're bringing him home,” Seunghyuk says. 

“I thought you liked me,” Zeren interjects sadly.

“You're alright. You're not the worst person Hyungseob has forced us to hang around,” Seunghyuk allows.

“Am I the best?”

“I am sticking with ‘not the worst’,” Seunghyuk says firmly. 

“You’re the best,” Hyungseob says because he’d much prefer to see Zeren smiling. 

“No. You’re the absolute worst,” Euiwoong says loudly. He really couldn’t be doing a worse job of pretending himself into absence. 

“No one asked you, funnily enough,” Hyungseob pointed out. It was petty and maybe even more uncalled for than Euiwoong's comment but he couldn't sit there listening to Euiwoong tar Zeren with the same brush as so many worse people. 

“There’s a lot that people haven’t asked you about yet there’s no end to the stuff you come out with,” Euiwoong retorts. It isn’t very nice. They’re on holiday and supposed to be having a good time and Euiwoong is completely determined to stay mad at Hyungseob.

After lunch Hyungseob decides it is better to hang out with Zeren and leave Seunghyuk to deal with mardy-bum extreme Lee Euiwoong. The reason Hyungseob wants to hang out in the hotel room with Zeren is partly to get away from Euiwoong but mostly to do things with Zeren that he doesn’t fancy doing in front of other people. Only after achieving the most important goal a few times he’s excluded from succeeding in the other goal. 

“Euiwoong’s nice,” Zeren say conversationally. 

“What? Why are you talking about him? Should I be worried?”

“No. Well, yes. I think you should worry more about your friend. I think he’s hurting.”

It isn’t quite what Hyungseob expects and it isn’t the sort of worrying he had been thinking of but he doesn’t have a clue why Zeren would be bringing it up at all. Nor why Zeren would be the one to point out that here might be something wrong with Hyungseob’s friend. 

“Let’s pretend that I never said not to talk about Woong in bed. Why should I be worried?”

“He’s very sad. It’s not for no reason,” Zeren says. 

“What do you want me to do about it?”

“What do you normally do when he’s sad?” Zeren asks.

Hyungseob isn’t sure. Euiwoong doesn’t really get sad. He gets annoyed and angry and he usually goes for a run or something to sweat his feelings out. When he’s sick he can turn into a bit of a baby but that’s usually remedied by cuddles that he doesn’t let anyone mention again afterwards. Hyungseob isn’t even sure something like that would suffice. Euiwoong seems to be in enough of a mood with Hyungseob to break his arms off before he can get close enough to attempt a cuddle. 

It seems a lot like something too difficult to resolve quickly. There are other things Hyungseob would rather do in the meantime. 

 

“It’s the last night,” Seunghyuk says with his hands on his hips. He looks very lofty and superior standing above them with such an unimpressed expression on his face. “You two had better hurry up and get over it. Kiss and make up. Now.”

“You’re not the boss of me,” Euiwoong says sullenly. 

“No I’m not, stupid. I’m your friend and I want to see the two of you have a properly good time. We need to get so absolutely rat-arsed that we have to get thrown out of the hotel because we’re too hungover to check out in time.”

It’s a noble enough reason. Definitely a plea genuinely from Seunghyuk’s heart confirmed by his wish to get astoundingly drunk. Hyungseob reaches across the empty sofa cushion to grasp Euiwoong’s hand but Euiwoong needn’t look so startled by the gesture. 

“Can we be friends again?”

“I can see in your face that you’re trying to be genuine,” Euiwoong allows, “but you’re really undermining that by sitting on Zeren’s lap right now.”

“I don’t have long left with him. This is our last full day together.”

“So you have to sit in his lap?”

“Yeah, it’s a bit much, Seob,” Seunghyuk says as he gestures at them. He says something to Zeren and for some reason the response is accompanied by Zeren holding Hyungseob tighter. “I give up.”

Even if Seunghyuk gives up Euiwoong sort of accepts Hyungseob’s non-apology. They’re back to normal as much as they can be but it’s all for the sake of drinking as much as possible. Within twenty minutes Euiwoong gets himself a round and a half ahead of everyone else.

“Pace yourself,” Seunghyuk warns. “The intention is to get drunk, not dead.”

“Mind your own business.”

Seunghyuk sends a glare Hyungseob’s way but he’s just about friends with Euiwoong again so he isn’t going to inhibit his drinking after they all intended to get incredibly drunk. Hyungseob sticks with the safest option of holding Zeren’s hand and tasting Zeren’s drink and kissing Zeren’s hand and all sorts of other things that keep him as a neutral party. Maybe not so neutral as that is somehow what go Euiwoong’s back up in the first place, but moreso than whatever Seunghyuk wants him to do. 

“Shall I get you another drink?” Hyungseob offers. 

“He hasn’t even finished that one,” Zeren says. 

“You don’t have any money,” Seunghyuk points out. 

“That doesn’t matter.”

“Yeah,” Euiwoong grins. “Get me, like, another one of these things and something else. And tell as many people as possible that I’m incredibly single.”

“I’m not going to do that,” Hyungseob mutters as he drags Zeren up from his seat. 

“I assume I am paying for the drinks,” Zeren notes cheerfully. He’s right of course but Hyungseob doesn’t think that needs to be said. What does need to be said is something else. 

“We need to leave right now.”

“Why? What’s wrong?” Zeren asks. Hyungseob points at the person standing directly behind Zeren at the bar. Zeren has the complete wrong reaction and smiles about it. “Oh! It’s Zhenghao!”

“Exactly! It’s Zhenghao. Why does he turn up everywhere? I can’t wait to be back in Korea so I never have to see him again.”

“What about me?” Zeren says with an exaggerated pout.

“I’m sure it won’t be quite so awkward for you to see him all the time. He didn’t break your Woong’s heart.”

“Your Woong. That’s so cute. You’re so nice about your friends. I love you.”

“I love you too,” Hyungseob says even though he knows Zeren is just trying to deflect. It works a little bit and they kiss quickly but Hyungseob remembers why they’re here. “We need to get Euiwoong a drink. Maybe two.”

“He definitely asked for two,” Zeren says. “And I thought you said we should leave.”

“You’re right. We do need to-- Oh bugger off.”

Zhenghao has somehow taken notice of them and Hyungseob pretends not to be there while he talks to Zeren about something or other. Zeren sounds like he is having some difficulties with whatever he’s saying to Zhenghao and unfortunately for Hyungseob that’s exactly when the barmaid approaches. 

“No Chinese,” Hyungseob says as well as he can. He makes sure to gesture lots at Zeren but it takes shaking his shoulder roughly to get him to pay attention. It is a wonder Zeren manages to order drinks with such ease before going back to stumbling over his conversation with Zhenghao. Hyungseob hopes Euiwoong will forgive him for drinking one of his drinks. Though that probably doesn’t matter so much anymore. 

“Jiongxie, my darling, why is Euiwoong… doing that?”

‘That’ pertains to gyrating in front of a lot of people. Zhenghao says something which gets passed on to Hyungseob via Zeren. “Is he lapdancing?”

 

Euiwoong looks like death warmed up. It isn’t a particularly big surprise, especially not after Zeren had been unable to get rid of Zhenghao last night. Of course he had taken that as a sign to drink twice as much as before so it is really his own fault that his skin is so sallow and every time he opens his mouth he belches sourly and slaps his hands over his mouth.

“I don’t think Woong is going to be let on the plane,” Seunghyuk says. 

Hyungseob doesn’t think so either but he tries not to jolt Euiwoong too much with his emphatic agreement. Euiwoong whimpers pathetically into Hyungseob’s shoulder and Zeren laughs. 

“When I come and visit you I won’t drink  as much as he did.”

“I’d advise you not to drink that much ever,” Seunghyuk says, suddenly an advocate for sobriety. They exchange a few more words and Hyungseob wishes he wasn’t sitting in the hotel lobby and waiting for the taxi to the airport. He wants this holiday to last for just a while longer. He wants to pretend he has more time with Zeren. 

“Gonna… sick,” Euiwoong mumbles. 

“No you’re not,” Hyungseob says as sternly as he can. But he does drag Euiwoong up with him and take him to the foyer toilets. He rubs Euiwoong’s back gently and says as many soothing things as he can manage while Euiwoong heaves loudly. 

Euiwoong rinses his mouth in the sink and sags into Hyungseob’s side. “Carry me.”

“I will not!” 

Even if he refuses there’s no point. He ends up attempting to hobble back to the foyer with Euiwoong’s arms draped across his shoulders. It is a difficult journey and Euiwoong is intent on making it more difficult by engaging in ill-advised dialogue. 

“This is better… than before.”

“Before when?” Hyungseob asks with some difficulty. Even with the practice on the way to the toilets he still doesn’t have the hang of manoeuvring around corners. 

“When I was already sick. I had to see you and Zeren,” Euiwoong rambles. Hyungseob doesn’t even think Euiwoong can multitask something as simple as walking and talking anymore. It would explain the constant squeaking noise following them.

“Please, move your feet, dummy. And I still don’t get what you mean.”   
“You wouldn’t look after me. I had to be sick on my own. After swimming lots I was sick lots. It was horrible.”

Hyungseob thinks not moving at all is his best bet. Especially as he is suddenly finding it difficult to multitask supporting Euiwoong’s weight and not crying. Zeren might have been onto something after all. It wasn’t exactly often that Hyungseob ever needed to pretend he was the responsible and capable one but for all his posturing about being so mature it is occasions exactly like this when Euiwoong needs someone else to look after him. “You were sick? I didn’t know. I would have stayed with you if I knew.”

“It doesn’t matter now. I get it.”

“It does matter, Woong. It was absolutely rotten of me to ignore you.”

Euiwoong smiles briefly before a cautious belch steals the expression away from him. He sways even more heavily into Hyungseob’s side (which seemed impossible up until it happened. A person who doesn’t take up much space has no business being so heavy when Hyungseob is the one responsible for taking their weight) and says, “You can clean up my sick any time. Zeren’s okay.”

“Zeren’s okay?”

“Even if he brought that stupid cute guy I like along yesterday… He’s okay. You can keep him.”

Hyungseob thinks it might be a bit late to get Euiwoong’s seal approval now but he thanks him anyway. It is nice to know that in the end Euiwoong has deemed him good enough to measure up against whatever his criteria is. Hyungseob already knows that by his own extremely arbitrary criteria Zeren instantly proved to be a good choice. 

They don’t have to wait much longer for the taxi to the airport and loading their cases into the boot of the taxi with the driver feels a lot like an infinity away from what he expected when he ended up getting picked up after Seunghyuk’s texts about taking a trip turned out not to be jokes. 

Euiwoong crawls into the backseat of the taxi and promptly falls asleep. It isn’t exactly helpful but Seunghyuk seems to be stalling the driver and Hyungseob hopes he remembers to thank him after he works out how to tackle this farewell. He guesses Zeren kissing him is a good start (or end, because it is much more likely to be that).

“I wish you could stay longer,” Zeren says quietly. Hyungseob wishes that too but he also knows he is much better off returning to reality sooner than later.

“I’ll miss you.”

“If you’re ever in China again -- anywhere, I will go anywhere to see you -- or if I happen to be in Korea some time…” Zeren trails off but Hyungseob doesn’t feel right finishing a sentence like that. They both get the drift of it and Hyungseob agrees to whatever it includes and whatever it excludes. 

He thinks that a trip like this is exactly what he needed even if he had worried about it never quite meeting the expectations of something that wouldn’t fit him or his friends. He knows he could have been better or more considerate or more fun or more responsible but it is already time to go home and Seunghyuk has exhausted his stalling material. 

Hyungseob kisses Zeren for the last time before getting into the taxi. 

Zeren and the hotel disappear from sight far sooner than Hyungseob would like but it had to happen at some point. He’s going home. Even Seunghyuk is quiet and Hyungseob assumes he won’t mind his shoulder being used as a pillow on the way to the airport. 

  
  
  


 


End file.
